President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a crackdown on gold scammers after the ruler of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum complained to him that his gold had been seized at JKIA.
His business associate Ali Zandi who runs a gold trading company in Dubai had informed Sheikh Maktoum that their gold consignment worth millions of shillings from DR Congo had been detained at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“Each time he spoke to President Kenyatta he raised the gold issue and when the President checked there was nothing like that. He was very pissed off and ordered security agencies to find those involved in conning Sheikh,” said a State House source familiar with the events.
It also emerged yesterday that a well-known political operative tried to unsuccessfully drag ODM leader Raila Odinga into their scheme.
“When Raila was in Dubai a few weeks back, this operative went to his hotel and asked Raila to help secure the release of the gold at JKIA. He then called a number saved in his telephone as CS Fred Matiangi and handed it to Raila.
“But Raila quickly realised that it wasn’t Matiang’i on the line and returned the phone to the owner. He warned him against using his name in his dealings and ordered him out of his hotel,” a Raila aide said yesterday.
The scam began mid last year when the political operative got intouch with the Dubai-based Zandi and cut a deal for a gold consignment that was supposedly in DRC.