Court

Ex-Councillor Blasts Kenyan Charges as Politically-Motivated 'Abuse' During Three Hours of Testimony at Extradition Hearing
Mon 23rd Nov 2015, Yellow Advertiser

A FORMER Basildon councillor was grilled under oath for almost three hours today as he fought an extradition attempt.

Kenyan authorities are trying to deport Daniel Munyambu, 41, from the UK to face trial for alleged fraud.

Mr Munyambu has admitted skipping bail in Kenya in May 2012, but told the hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court he did so on the advice of a judge because he feared for his life.

He claimed the fraud charges were politically motivated and were only pursued after he visited the country to work on a politician’s election campaign.

He testified that his escape was aided by the magistrate presiding over his case and that no action was taken after he fled.

He said that despite knowing where he was, the Kenyan authorities only attempted to extradite him years later when he expressed an interest in standing in a presidential election.

The court heard Mr Munyambu arrived in the UK in 2006 and was given indefinite leave to remain in 2008 after he married a British national.

He was elected to Basildon Council as a Labour politician in 2011 and received a British passport in 2012. He divorced his wife in 2013.
Mr Munyambu told the court he became involved in Kenyan politics after moving to the UK.

He said: “Here in London in July 2007 the vice president came to visit Kenyans and I happened to attend the meeting he had. I asked him a question relating to Kenyans being denied the right to vote.

“Three months later they invited me to Kenya to go and campaign for him.”

Mr Munyambu’s barrister Ben Lloyd presented three photographs to the court which he said showed his client campaigning in Kenya in December 2007, pictured with dignitaries including the defence minister.

A year later Mr Munyambu’s company Clickett Traders UK Ltd, which exported cars to Kenyan buyers including government ministers, became involved in a dispute with a customer.

Mr Munyambu presented bank statements at today’s hearing which he said demonstrated that he had gone about fulfilling the order in good faith.

He claimed the matter was a normal civil dispute which he had attempted to resolve satisfactorily.

However, when he returned to Kenya to participate in another election campaign in May 2012, he was arrested for alleged fraud and learned the criminal charges were linked to the business dispute.

Mr Munyambu said a series of ‘weird’ events after his arrest made him fear for his safety.

He said he was then called to a meeting in a hotel where a judge returned the passport he had surrendered to the court and advised him to flee the country.

Mr Munyambu testified: “Several activities took place. The first instance, I was in my house and I received a call. The caller introduced herself as Pauline and she told me that she is the one who is prosecuting my case and she would like us to meet.

“I drove to meet her near the court where my case was taking place in Nairobi. When she came to meet me in my car, I asked her why she was calling me and she told me that the reason is that she wants to help me to get rid of the case if I pay her 100,000 Kenyan shillings.

“It was very, very weird to me. She told me that is how they do things back there. After that I went home and she kept calling me.”

Mr Munyambu said he tried to report the activity to the Government’s Integrity Centre but nothing was done.

He said: “I went there and reported to an officer. He recorded the information and they told me they were going to act on it. They never did. I never received any feedback.”

He continued: “I felt so much insecure, because this is an officer who had requested 100,000 shillings. So I felt that my life is in danger because if you expose them anything can happen. Kenyan police officers, they have been killing people.”

Mr Munyambu said he was then handed back his passport and encouraged to go on the run.

He said: “I received a call and the caller introduced himself. He told me he is the magistrate who is in my case and he told me we can meet in a hotel.

“I drove to the hotel. He never asked me about any money. He told me that he is sympathetic but the only thing he can do is give me back my passport and I can leave the country in two days.”

Mr Lloyd presented copies of Mr Munyambu’s passport, which showed he had been registered crossing the border from Kenya to Uganda shortly after the alleged meeting, before entering Uganda and then Rwanda.

He arrived back in the UK on May 26, whereupon he telephoned Essex Police and reported his escape. He testified that the force assigned him an officer to ensure his personal safety.

Prosecutor Adina Ezekiel confirmed today that Kenya’s High Court had ruled the passport was returned by ‘improper means’.

She said an investigation was ongoing into how it had come back into Mr Munaymbu’s possession.

Mr Munyambu said that although a warrant was issued for his arrest in Kenya in August 2012, he was never pursued again until this year when a political party selected him as a candidate in the 2017 presidential elections.

He said: “When I left Kenya in 2012 they knew where I was in the UK because I was appearing in the newspapers. If they genuinely wanted this extradition then they could have done it in 2012.”

Ms Ezekiel challenged Mr Munyambu’s version of events.

She claimed that in a 2013 attempt to get the Kenyan High Court to quash the charges against him, Mr Munyambu never mentioned anything about believing the charges were politically motivated - which Mr Munyambu accepted was true.

Ms Ezekiel suggested he had exaggerated his political status, saying the only article he had produced which suggested he had any political ambitions had been published in 2015, years after he was arrested.

She said: “You say you’re known, but that’s it. The articles you have produced don’t identify you as a potential politician.”

Mr Munyambu defended his version of events, telling the court: “They know very well that I’m very strong in politics and when I go for it, I’m going to win.

“The president now sent his personal assistant called Lucy to come and meet me and she spent two days in my house to gain more information on campaigning.

“They came to gain more information from me on how to achieve.”

However, Ms Ezekiel suggested Mr Munyambu’s claim was undermined by his performance in this year’s Thurrock parliamentary elections, where he secured 79 votes as an independent candidate.

Mr Munyambu defended the score, saying: “It’s about policies. The only thing they didn’t go for me is that I didn’t have a political party.”

Ms Ezekiel said Mr Munyambu had failed to present crucial emails proving his side of the story about the business dispute.

Asked why he had not provided them, the former councillor – who did not seek re-election to his seat in Vange this year – said he had not used his old business email for several years and no longer remembered the password.

The hearing continues and is expected to conclude on Wednesday.

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