Ruto’s Mean Deal With Shadowy Belgian Company Raises Eyebrows

When Belgian reporters affiliated to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists visited a building Bridgin Foundation claims to operate from in Brussels, they found no indication it has offices there.

The building is in the European Quarter, a section of the capital city that hosts offices of several EU institutions.

The building employees confirmed that Bridgin periodically hires a room to hold meetings.

It means the institution that has signed billion-dollar contracts with several countries – with Kenya seemingly almost joining the club – has no verifiable physical presence.

Bridgin was incorporated in Belgium on November 18, 2014.

Other than Prof Mouhamadou and Prieels, Bridgin has Bourgys Sébastien Stéphane and Ruessmann Florence as its directors.

Bastin Yves Jean left the directorship in 2020.

Investigative journalism firm, AmaBhungane, established that Bridgin has never filed annual accounts with Belgian authorities since incorporation. The organisation has only filed tax returns.

Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera described his country’s $6.8 billion deal as “early Christmas”, barely six months after Uganda’s education spokesperson admitted that Bridgin’s offer sounded “too good to be true”.

Last month, Prof Mouhamadou told AmaBhungane that the agency operates using the Judaist spirit of Tikkun olam.

In Tikkun olam, subscribers take remedial action to repair the world and leave it a better place.

The Bridgin Foundation engagement is the second incident involving the Kenya Kwanza government to set off international alarm bells, following a February trip to Qatar by Trade and Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria.

Three days before Mr Kuria led a team of 30 for an investment forum in Doha, a letter detailing the travel party’s identities was leaked to journalists at the Nation Media Group.

Mr Alexandr Zingman, 56, and Mr Oleg Vodchits, 36, were listed in a February 24 letter from the Foreign Affairs Ministry to the Qatari embassy as being in a team from Mr Kuria’s ministry that was to fly to Doha for a five-day event starting on February 27.

To justify the two Belarusians’ presence in his team, the minister listed them as advisers on countries.

Mr Zingman owns Aftrade DMCC, a company that trades agricultural equipment and solutions with African countries. Mr Vodchits is the CEO.

The Dubai-registered company has a local presence and has sold tractors to Kenyan farmers.

Mr Zingman is close to Mr Segei Sheiman, an associate of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

The two were arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 over links to shady dealings with gold. He has in the past been linked to arms sales in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Mr Zingman and Mr Sheiman have gold dealings in the DR Congo, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Their Zimbabwe gold businesses were falsely presented to the public as a joint venture between Zimbabwe and Belarus.

Mr Zingman was among individuals unmasked in the 2021 Pandora Papers – a trove of documents revealing registration of shell companies in tax havens by hundreds of influential individuals across the world – over the Zimbabwe dealings.

He used shell companies registered in the UK and the Seychelles in an attempt to hide his ownership of Zim Goldfields, the company at the heart of the shady gold dealings.

Zim Goldfields was in 2018 granted a licence to mine gold in a section of River Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe. It also bagged prospecting deals for platinum and rare earth metals.

Initially, the contracts were painted as government-to-government deals, only for the Pandora Papers to reveal that they were benefiting private institutions. Zimbabwean authorities insist that Mr Zingman is a legitimate businessman whose dealings with the country are above board.

He is honorary consul of Belarus to Zimbabwe. Mr Zingman is an ally of Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, former DR Congo leader Joseph Kabila, Mr Kuria and other leaders.

When asked about the two Belarusians in his trip to Qatar, the CS said no one had a right to ask questions about his friends.

Mr Kuria said the Belarusians would foot their bills for the Qatari excursion, hence there was no need to reveal any information on their role in the ministry.

Mr Kuria and his Foreign and Diaspora Affairs colleague, Alfred Mutua, met Belarusian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Aleinik at the country’s embassy on Monday and discussed bilateral ties.

Mr Aleinik also met President Ruto, who urged Belarus to consider investing in Kenya.

(Weekly Review).