Pattni Plunges into Politics

Kenyan businessman and star-witness in the multi-billion Goldenberg scam Paul Kamlesh

Mansukhlal Damji Pattni has confirmed that he will be running for an elective post during next

year’s general election.

Pattni has taken over the defunct Kenya National Democratic Alliance (Kenda) party that founded by the late Prof. Mukaru Ng’ang’a prior to the 1992 multi-party polls.

According to Pattni, Kenda party will hold a National Delegates Conference (NDC) on December 16 when the shrewd businessman-cum-philanthropist is expected to publicly take over as party’s boss.

Kamlesh Pattni was born in Mombasa, Kenya in 1962. He later moved to the capital, Nairobi where he allegedly used his company to cut deals worth billions of shillings by teaming up with prominent politicians and government officials that culminated in what is now the “Goldenberg scandal”.

So devastating were the effects of the scam to Kenyan economy to the extent that the donor community withdrew crucial donor funding to the country thus pushing inflation rate to an all-time high.

Though his link to the monumental rip-off has taken him to the most notorious jails in the country, Paul Kamlesh, just like the Paul of the Bible, he has always managed to get his way out.

He took up the name “Paul” after he apparently renounced the Hindu religion and went ahead to be baptized by Bishop Arthur Kitonga of the Pentecostal outfit, Redeemed Gospel Church.

He now holds a regular Christian gathering every Saturday at International Casino whereby he, most of times, takes the podium to feed the hungry souls with the divine bread from heaven – the Bible.

For more than a decade, Kamlesh has straddled Kenya's courts as the chief suspect in more than one case. At one time he was engaged in a long-drawn legal battle with Dubai-based businessman Ibrahim Ali over ownership of the Kenya Duty Free (KDF) shops.

A year ago Pattni had another long-drawn court case in which he was accused of killing his former chief security officer, Friedrich Wilhem Kohlwes, in Tigoni, Limuru. The case was later dropped due to lack of enough evidence.

One Bernard Kalove, who is Pattni’s lawyer, is the party’s secretary while a Joram Kariuki is the vice-chairman as post he occupied in the original Kenda. He, together with Paddy Onyango and Winston Kang’ethe, steered the party during the period.

Kenda has been moribund since the death of Ng’ang’a. During the 1997 General Election, it sponsored the current Subukia Mp, Koigi Wamwere as its presidential candidate who not only failed to win the parliament seat but had a dismal performance at his first stab on presidency. Koigi, now the Information assistant minister, switched to Narc in 2002 and won the seat.

The Registrar of Societies, L N Waithaka, lists down the names of the new officials in an August 1 letter.The letter addressed to Kenda secretary lines up all the officials that includes, a Pius Njogu (assistant secretary), Irene Ndegwa (treasurer), and Ephraim Njugu Njeru (organising secretary).

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