Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta. PHOTO / JENNIFER MUIRURI
Police investigating the loss of a bag linked to Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday it did not have money.
The disappearance was reported to officers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in an hour, they said.
The officers added that the bag contained an Ipad, three mobile phones, a medical card and a business card holder.
Mr Kenyatta’s office described reports that the bag was carrying $10 million (Sh840 million) as falsehood meant to discredit and link him to crime.
“It’s an atrocious falsehood and part of the current conspiracy to discredit Mr Kenyatta. The description, the blogs (which specifically mention his name) plus the fact that only he reported a lost bag, make it very clear that the accusations are specifically against him,” he said in a statement sent to newsrooms by director of communications at the deputy premier’s office Munyori Buku.
According to Mr Buku, associating Mr Kenyatta with luggage stashed with such a big amount of cash is tantamount to linking him to serious crime.
“The money in 100 dollar notes weighs 100 kg, is 4 cubic feet yet the bag was a small computer bag. This just confirms how ludicrous the report is. Carrying that amount of cash is in contravention of many laws and constitutes a serious crime, the most serious being money laundering, which legislation Mr Kenyatta was instrumental in having passed,” his statement said.
The bag was lost on Monday after Mr Kenyatta and his entourage landed from Amsterdam, Netherlands, after a date with the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The reports claim that Mr Kenyatta had carried the cash from Kenya expecting he would be asked to post bail at the court where he is accused of committing crimes against humanity during the 2007 post-election violence.
“His assistant left one of his bags on the plane on Monday morning when they arrived back in Nairobi. All his bags had been subjected to normal security screening and scanning in Amsterdam,” the statement said.
Mr Kenyatta wants the police to investigate the reports linking him to the colossal amount of money.
“It is very important that the police find and expose the persons behind these atrocious accusations,” he said.
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