Congo’s 14 Billion Gold Scam in Kenya Attract Investigations

Investigations have been launched into gold worth 14 billion shillings believed to have been smuggled from North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through Burundi.

The 4.6-tonne consignment is said to have gotten into Kenya on February 2018 ahead of legitimization which would have enabled the smugglers to sell it to foreign markets as a product of Kenya. Fortunately for the Kenyan Government, the legitimization process took too long enabling the police to seize and impound the illegal gold.

The smuggler is suspected to be a multi-millionaire Turkish-American citizen who is based in Dubai and is working closely with leaders in DRC and Kenya.

The suspect has been in the business of supplying military equipment and construction material to various countries and has, apparently, visited Kenya on a number of occasions, through the help of four strongly connected Congolese nationals currently residing in Kenya.

The four Congolese nationals have been suspected of assisting the suspect to smuggle gold out of Congo which is known for its richness in the mineral.

A previous recent successful smuggle of Gold worth 3 billion shillings, by the racket, to Hong Kong through Kenya led to investigations which have brought the police to the 14 billion shillings worth of gold.

Gold smuggling in Kenya from Congo has previously occurred but the current impound is likely to be the largest consignment the country has seen with a 2.5 tonne of gold worth 8 billion shillings smuggle impounded in 2011.

The gold impounded in 2011 pushed President Kabila of DRC to urgently fly to Kenya for talks with the then President Mwai Kibaki.

It is yet to be seen whether Congo’s leaders will initiate talks and what step the Kenyan government is going to take on the smuggling case.