Standard, Kenya
Dec 2 2006
Confessions of Artur brothers’ driver
By Saturday Standard Reporter
A man who drove the bogus Artur brothers around Nairobi gave
startling confessions to the twin parliamentary committees taking
evidence on the Armenian saga.
Among the untested claims by Mr Richard Ambwayo Nerima, a former
driver of businessman Raju Sanghani, who was instrumental in their
adventure in Kenya, is that his colleague drove them on a
surveillance mission around the Standard Group premises before the
March 2 raid, in which they were implicated.
He was also there when they were buying reflective jackets and
walkie-talkies, which he believes were used in the raid. During his
appearance before the joint committee, co-chaired by Kabete MP Paul
Muite and Changamwe MP Suleiman Shakombo, he gave a breakdown of the
Government vehicles they had at their disposal.
Arturs were taken to State House
He was also categorical he saw them mingle with the daughter of an
influential Narc activist and a former top Criminal Investigations
Department official.
"I have visitors from Dubai. Because you are a good driver and you
have worked with the police. I want to assign you the task of taking
them around. You will pick them up in the morning and drop them home
in the evening,” Sanghani told Nerima, when he gave him the job.
For the job, he was assigned a Mercedes Benz registration KAB 300R.
The fleet at their disposal later grew larger, including one from Mr
Baktash Akasha, the son of slain drug dealer Abdullah Kassim Akasha.
Sanghani is the man, who in July stepped into the Shedrack Kiruki
Committee investigating the activities of the so-called Artur
brothers and confessed he brought them into the country.
Nerima claimed he knew the Arturs were taken to State House by
well-connected personality and that at one point they even were under
the comfortable guard of some members of the elite Presidential
Escort.
Arturs roughed up hotel security
Soon after the visit to State House, Nerima claimed, a senior
Presidential Escort officer and a State House official began to
process travel documents for their visit to Uganda.
At some point, the Artur brothers were scheduled to meet a senior
official of the Ugandan Government at a Nairobi hotel. The hotel
security men attempted to block them from entering after they refused
to identify themselves.
The Arturs, who had several bodyguards, two of who were Tanzanians,
reacted by roughing up the hotel security and went ahead to meet the
Ugandan official whose name is given only as a Mr Obel.
In his testimony to the committee, whose final findings are yet to be
officially made public, who included a former senior police officer
and a Narc activist, regularly visited the Artur brothers in their
Runda residence.
Vehicles with Government registration numbers
The former senior police officer was among the revelers who regularly
patronised the Runda residence to party and make merry with the Artur
brothers.
He shocked the committee with further revelations that the Narc
activist, together with Sanghani, actually accompanied the Artur
brothers to view the Runda house before they rented it.
The activist had bodyguards, whose names were furnished to the
committee, and often used vehicles with Government registration
numbers.
Some of the vehicles, according to Nerima, who also says he was fired
from the service after being accused of corruption, are the ones that
were being used by the Artur brothers.
He said that, while some of the number plates on the vehicles could
have been fake, most of them were genuine. He said that it was only
on a few occasions that he would be asked to change number plates
before the Arturs drove out on private missions that he did not know.
Accompanied by between two to four chase cars
He said that, on their first visit to the country in November just
before they rented the Runda residence, the Artur brothers were
received by his boss, Sanghani, who helped check them into a Nairobi
hotel.
Together with two other colleagues, the Artur brothers occupied four
rooms in the hotel, including a presidential suite, where they
received their visitors.
In the later stages of their stay, however, they were using vehicles
belonging to the Narc activist, some of which were unregistered.
During their most dramatic moments, the Arturs would drive in and out
of their house accompanied by between two to four chase cars and
police guards.
He said the Arturs, whom he was informed by the bodyguards were
investors, might have been introduced to State House by someone he
did not name.
Brother were given police bodyguards
It could have been as a result of the State House connections that
the Arturs were also given police bodyguards who drove them around,
he claimed.
Nerima says he used to drive the Arturs around the city prior to
their being given police guards, as a result of which he got to know
a number of their dealings and could thus identify the senior
Government officials they often met.
Some of the police body guards, he said, were his workmates when he
served in Nyeri as a police officer.
He told the committee that, on one occasion at around 5pm, he
escorted the Artur brothers to the CID headquarters, scenes of crime
offices, where they remained for a very long time.
The bodyguards and the woman who used to drive them around, Ms
Shifana, had accompanied them.