Envoy now defended in cashews sale deal

Dar es Salaam. Industry and Trade minister Joseph Kakunda yesterday said nobody was to blame after Kenya-based Indo Power Solutions deal to purchase 100,000 tonnes of raw cashew nuts from the government flopped.

Mr Kakunda’s statement follows media reports claiming that the Kenyan ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Dan Kazungu, had endorsed the shadowy firm in a Sh418 billion cashew nuts deal with Tanzania.

The government has been under pressure to accept responsibility in the deal gone soar. Mr Kazungu separately issued a statement on Tuesday night saying Indo Power Solutions followed the right procedures of transacting businesses between the two sides.

“A total of 18 firms from different countries including China and India contested for the bid and that Indo Power Solutions, the only Kenyan firm to bid, won,” he said, noting that it was his role to promote legal Kenyan businesses.

He said through the Kenyan’s commercial division, the mission wrote to the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Kenya on January 22, confirming that Indo Power was registered and incorporated on October 6, 2016 under Companies Act, 2015.

According to him, the company had an import certificate number KRA201700650595 to operate in the business of importation and exportation of various products.

In light of the above, the Kenyan envoy said, the mission, whose aim is to promote trade and investment facilitation as part of economic diplomacy, “encouraged persons and organisation to be at liberty to do businesses with the company.”

When contacted yesterday, Mr Kakunda repeated the statement he made in Parliament that there was an exchange of communication between the Tanzanian government, Tanzanian Embassy in Kenya and the Kenyan Embassy in Tanzania before the deal, which flopped, was signed on January 30.

“However, we don’t blame ourselves, the Kenyan government or any other individual because failures in making business transactions was a normal thing all over the world,” he said.

He said companies used preliminary contracts for accessing bank guarantees from financial institutions, something for which they couldn’t put the blame on anybody.

“It will neither remove legality of the respective company. I should therefore warn those referring Indo Power Solutions as a fraudulent company because they would be subjected to huge fines if they are sued,” he said.

Mr Kakunda said the Tanzania government has closed the subject after clarifications he made in Parliament last week. However, he said after the flopped deal, six companies have inked contracts for the same.

Media reports in Kenya have linked Mr Kazungu to Mr Brian Mutembei who signed the cashews deal with Tanzania’s Cereals Board but has since failed to purchase the 100,000 tonnes of the produce over unspecified reasons.