At a Juliet committee crisis meeting charged with tension and free flow of adrenalin, the Ksh 300.000 that a large section of the Juliet committee members feared missing was eventually accounted for. At the meeting held at Kulturhuset on Friday 15th September, a fire-breathing Treasurer, Mr. Silas Njuguna, charged that he was shocked to read at the Kenya Stockholm Blog that he had disappeared and that cash was missing.
“People have been calling me all day asking me why I have stolen money”, he told the meeting. According to Mr. Njuguna, he sent his apologies through a Committee member and stated that since he was working on Wednesday evening, he couldn’t attend the meeting. “I could not respond to phone calls either because at my work place, we are not allowed to answer phone calls”, he said. Apparently, Mr. Njuguna’s apologies never reached the Wednesday committee meeting due to some inexplicable reasons. Mr. Mwaura claimed that he did not receive the message about the Wednesday meeting.
Because members arrived at the meeting with flaring tempers, almost trembling with rage, those present voted that the meeting be Chaired by a neutral person and not Mr. Daniel Mwaura, Juliet committee Chairperson who had also been accused of having been at large. Monica Bryan, a close friend of Juliet, was voted as the meeting’s Chairlady. This move ended an intensive shouting match that dominated the tone during the opening minutes.
After a hot argument and brief exchanges, an agenda was agreed upon and the meeting quickly moved to the question of accountability. The Treasurer said that money had already been sent to Juliet’s mother as had been agreed at an earlier meeting while he also said that Fidelia AB, the company that transported Juliet’s body to Kenya, had also been paid.
According to documents produced by the Treasurer, 277.732 Kenyan shillings was sent to Juliet’s mother Mrs Agnes M. Kikanga Kavinga through Western Union while Fidelia AB was paid 17.800,50 Kr. Cash that was paid to Fidelia was a special discount rate and not the normal Fidelia price. A document that was faxed from Nairobi to the Kenyan Embassy in Stockholm dated September 15th 2006 and signed on behalf of Juliet’s mother, Agnes, indicated that she received Ksh 277,732.
When asked why he did not update other Committee members that money had been sent, Mr. Njuguna said that he did not believe that such an update was important. The meeting recognized the fact that there appeared to have been a serious communication breakdown between the Treasurer, the Chairperson and seven other Committee members which included the Secretary.
Committee members who were not in the know like Mr. Gerry Midenyo, Pastor Beatrice Kamau, Sera Nielsen and others defended the move by seven Committee members to go public to the effect that the Committee was in the dark regarding the funds. The big fear was that it was raw cash that was physically in the custody of an individual and, according to Pastor Beatrice, the Committee had to raise the alarm because the funds involved were raised by Kenyans and friends.
Another issue that was tackled was the fate of cash that was raised by the Juliet Foundation and which was part of the Juliet contribution. A bank statement that was produced by Heidi, the key contact of the foundation, indicated that cash that was withdrawn from the Foundation and sent to Juliet’s mother amounted to 6.816 Kr. Throughout the life of the Juliet committee, there has been deep suspicion between the Committee and the Juliet Foundation especially on the question of money the Foundation was raising.
When the Juliet Committee was set up last month at Tensta, a secret deal was made between all Committee members from Kenya that the Heidi Foundation would be kept out of Committee affairs but that communication with Heidi would be maintained in order to keep a tab on what the Foundation was doing. An attempt on 1st September by Heidi to bank cash that was raised by Kenyans and friends in her Foundation account was blocked by the Treasurer Mr. Njuguna at Alby because of the “Tensta declaration”. Anger mounted among Committee members that Pastor Antonio Helena (who is close to Heidi) had told Stockholm city newspaper that he would bury Juliet at a Church in Stockholm.
When the Chairman, the Treasurer and a Committee member began mobilizing the Foundation members to attend Committee meetings to help influence decisions through voting, a deep rift emerged in the Committee. This rift is what fuelled suspicions that the three Committee members who appeared to have been working with Heidi after betraying the “Tensta declaration” might have been up to something fishy with money. When the three Committee members failed to attend the Wednesday committee meeting, an alarm was sounded.
Concerned Kenyans who attended the Friday meeting like Mr. Clay Onyango, Mr. Milton Obote, Karim Abdul and Ms Lillian Mbova said that it was in order for a section of the Committee that was raising questions to look at the documents to ascertain what had happened to the money. Mr. Clay, who runs a Western Union branch in Stockholm, verified to the meeting through a phone call that the transaction as reflected on the Western Union receipt was legitimate.
The meeting resolved that since all issues had been resolved at the meeting, the Committee would be dissolved at an internal Party whose date will be announced later.
Okoth Osewe
makosewe@gmail.com
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