Why former lands minister James Orengo is in trouble with the Jubilee Administration

… and why the ICC connection has everything to do with it.

James Orengo, meeting journalists at the Serena hotel in Nairobi

Former lands minister in the Grand Coalition government Mr. James Aggrey Orengo is facing serious allegation of fraud over parcels of land in Lamu County from the UhuRuto administration. Orengos’ problems our sources reveal have everything to do with the ongoing cases at the ICC facing President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and his deputy William Samoei arap Ruto.

Sources told The Weekly Vision online that troubles for Mr. Orengo began immediately after the ICC judges directed the prosecution to use compulsory means to access President Uhuru Kenyatta’s financial and land records if Kenya fails to cooperate. This was after the current Cabinet Secretary for Lands in Kenya; Charity Ngilu insinuated in a letter to the ICC that there is no record in Kenya that indicates Uhuru Kenyatta owns any parcel of land.

The government also insinuated that because Uhuru did not have any companies registered in his name, and as such he could not submit VAT records which he did not have anyway. He however provided income and tax return records from 1992 to 2014. She however said that this could be as a result of the loss of 1.3 million files in the lands office. Ngilu explained that if Uhuru owned land, may be his files were either lost, misplaced or misfiled.

Uhuru Kenyatta (left) in court at the ICC

 It was this letter from Charity Ngilu to the ICC on matters land and the directive by the ICC judges that the prosecutor could use compulsory means to access President Uhuru Kenyatta’s financial and land records if Kenya failed to cooperate that sent alarm bells ringing in State House, Nairobi.

The prosecutor, armed with her new found power of sourcing information through compulsory means then contacted James Orengo, himself a former lands minister to obtain the records. The Weekly Vision source says that this information somehow also reached State House through the NIS. A decision was made to use the cover of the Lamu insecurity situation to fix Mr. Orengo. It is now clear why both lands Ministers during Mwai Kibaki’s tenure at State House are facing trouble. Mr. Kimunya is in court for allegedly hiving off part of forest land in his native Kipipiri constituency to benefit a company that he is closely associated with. 

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda

The Communications Authority of Kenya that oversees the telecommunications sector also says that in 2007 and 2008 they were not yet registering data and telephone use because they were not technologically able to do so. As such they could not provide any telephone or data records related to Uhuru Kenyatta.

The registrar of companies in Kenya also says that it was impossible for them to trace the companies Uhuru Kenyatta owned or was associated with because during that time they did not have a computerized system of recording the companies. The search of manual files did not show any companies owned by Kenyatta or his associates.