A fresh row is brewing in the presidency after Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki reportedly invited Prime Cabinet Secretary and Secretary for Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi to a meeting in his office to discuss money laundering and counter-terrorism.

However, in a quick rejoinder, Mudavadi private secretary Kibisu Kabatesi denied that PCS attended the meeting in a junior cabinet colleagues office on Monday May 6, despite pictures posted on the Interior Ministry X’s (formerly Twitter) handle showing the minister presiding over the meeting with Mudavadi in attendance.

As soon as the meeting ended, high-ranking officers in the prime cabinet secretary and interior ministry office expressed exasperation that Mudavadi was kowtowing to juniors in the executive, which is gradually gnawing at his standing as the third highest-ranking member of the executive after the president and his deputy. The officials termed it as a breach of the protocol as Mudavadi is the senior-most cabinet secretary in the Kenyan government hierarchy, being two rungs below the president.

However, concerns that PCS Mudavadi had kowtowed to Prof Kindiki were quickly quashed by Kabtesi who explained to Tell that Mudavadi was in the Office of President for a routine inter-ministerial meeting.

Kabatesi was responding to a dispatch from Prof Kindiki, who reportedly chaired the meeting at Harambee House office that had a roster of attendees who included Mudavadi. Even as Kabatesi allayed concerns that his boss had been belittled, a high-ranking security expert in Kindiki’s office confirmed that the prime cabinet secretary attended the meeting convened. The expert attended the meeting.

“We are surprised that Mudavadi can reduce himself to this level. He should be the one summoning Kindiki to his office,” the officer, an expert on terrorism and security in eastern Africa, told Tell Media.

The meeting in question was the second quarterly consultation of 2024 of the counter-terrorism financing inter-ministerial committee, according to the dispatch. However, Kabatesi says Mudavadi chaired a different meeting for a planned refugee laws review to align the laws to the latest United Nations resolution passed last month in Geneva, Switzerland, which the PCS attended.

Kabatesi explained, “Let me put the record straight. Musalia chairs inter-ministerial meetings; he is in the executive office that is composed of three offices – office of the president, office of the deputy president and the office of the prime cabinet secretary. Their main office is actually at Harambee House because the president’s office is at Harambee House, where there is a big boardroom for such meetings.”

In the dispatch received by Tell, the meeting was held in Harambee House in Prof Kindiki’s office and was attended by senior members of the executive, namely: Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning Njuguna Ndung’u, Attorney General Justin Muturi, Central Bank of Kenya Governor Dr Kamau Thugge, Inspector General, National Police Service Eng Japhet Koome, Director, National Counter Terrorism Centre Dr Rosalind Nyawira and Director General, Financial Reporting Centre Saitoti Maika.

Shortly after the meeting, the question of protocol popped up. Further, a senior advisor on security in the president’s office who declined to go on record questioned how the prime cabinet secretary agreed to attend the meeting in a breach of protocol that as he is the chief coordinator of government functions that akin to a prime minister in a parliamentary system of government.

“Musalia went to that office to chair an inter-ministerial meeting on refugees, which he chairs. He was not invited by Kindiki, neither did he go to Kindiki’s office for a meeting. He went to the executive office, which the president rarely uses. The perception that Mudavadi attended Kindiki’s meeting is wrong. Mudavadi is the one who convened the meeting. There is a new law they are formulating on refugees that resulted from the he attended in Geneva on refugee rights,” Kabatasi explained.

An exasperated high-ranking officer in the office of the president described as “despicable” Mudavadi’s accession to attend the meeting convened by a subordinate.

“I cannot post this on social media by virtue of my office. However, this Luhya mentality of accepting every meeting which makes others bigger than him should end. MM (Musalia Mudavadi) has done himself a disservice by attending a meeting chaired by Kindiki, yet MM is the boss.”

Since his appointment to the strategic position in government nearly two years ago, Mudavadi has had a few run-ins in the executive with his peers who are reportedly determined to whittle down his clout in the presidency. The row after the Monday meeting is the third time prime cabinet secretary is a having a bad run with his colleagues in government.

Early last year, PCS Mudavadi was involved in a short-lived standoff with Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua as they jostled for the president’s ear. The bad blood was dissipated when President William Ruto reviewed the job description of his two subordinates who by dint of their positions and proximity to the seat of power wield massive influence in government.

Months after the standoff with Gachagua was resolved, Mudavadi was drawn into yet another standoff with Cabinet Secretary for Civil Service Moses Kuria over office space and cabinet functions.

Prior to the meeting, Kindiki had outlined in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle that the meeting focused on terrorism and money laundering – two security concerns that have in recent months catapulted Kenya to the Interpol grey-list on transnational organised crime.

Kindiki’s post says, “The government is continuously monitoring financial inflows to protect our country from the harm of money laundering and terrorism financing in line with the obligations of the Prevention of Terrorism Act of Kenya and various United Nations Security Council Treaties and Resolutions on the prevention of terrorism and terrorism financing.”

The resurgence of terrorist attacks along Kenya coast and the tracking of illicit money in eastern Africa places Kenya on the pedestal of the crimes that are sweeping Somalia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a X post after the meeting, Kindiki said, “Kenya is actively tracking terrorist sympathisers and collaborators, who continue to devise new ways of financing the enemy’s operations through illicit financial flows into/from the country. More measures on this endeavour were discussed today during the 2nd Quarterly Meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Financing Inter-Ministerial Committee, which was chaired by CS (Kindiki).”

Research findings by European Union and ENACT Project titled Africa Organised Crime Index 2023: Increasing criminality, growing vulnerabilities released in November last year notes, “The efficacy of ‘anti-money laundering’ responses and the overall tenure of the economic regulatory environment declined, by 0.17 and 0.11 points respectively. No country improved their ‘anti-money laundering’ score, while three of nine countries saw a 0.50 point decline: Somalia (2.0), Sudan (3.50) and Tanzania (5.0), putting them at greater risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, with considerable capacity barriers hindering their policies’ effectiveness. Across the region, the informal economy was also pervasive, and authorities have had little success in ensuring legitimate business can operate free from criminal interference.”

“In 2023,”  according to the findings, “as in other regions, social protection indicators had the lowest scores in East Africa, with ‘victim and witness support’ (2.0) decreasing by 0.17 points since 2021, driven by Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan (all 1.0 in 2023). This demonstrates that procedures for proactively identifying trafficking victims and referring them to care are either not in place or not being implemented effectively.”

The report ranks crime incidence between 0 and 10, with zero being the lowest and 10 the highest.

Money-laundering and terrorism feed-off each other according to EU and reports by security agencies in Kenya.

The EU and ENACT findings note, “East Africa includes countries that have well-established criminal markets and actors, whose political instabilities and conflicts. Seven out of its nine countries scored higher than the continental average of 5.25 for criminality: Kenya (7.02), Uganda (6.55), Sudan (6.37), South Sudan (6.32), Tanzania (6.20), Somalia (6.13) and Ethiopia (5.68). Only Djibouti (4.65) and Eritrea (3.97) scored lower than the average.”

Money laundering and terrorism are of particular concern to Kenya given that “East Africa drives the continental averages for human smuggling, extortion and protection racketeering, arms trafficking and human trafficking. The two most pervasive criminal markets in the region are human trafficking and arms trafficking, which both scored 7.78 in 2023.” 

• A Tell report