Police in Israel are preparing documents to have a Kenya-based firm charged over bribery, a move that could give the ongoing fight against corruption a new dimension.
Shikun and Binui, the parent company of Solel Boneh International (SBI) Holdings, is alleged to have engaged in various acts of bribery in Africa and particularly in Kenya where Israeli investigators focused on.
“Offences, they said, include bribery of a foreign public servant, misrepresentation of corporate documents, conspiracy, disruption of legal proceedings, money laundering and misreporting to authorities between 2008 and 2016,” added the Reuters report.
The police statement said that in Kenya alone, where their investigations were centred, “bribes totalling tens of millions of shekels were transferred, generating projects and benefits worth hundreds of millions of shekels”.
The company was contracted to make roads in Western Kenya, parts of Machakos and the Coast. The new Mau Summit Road that connects to Kericho to Kisumu was also made by the company.
The latest development comes at the time Kenya is battling the war against corruption. While President Uhuru Kenyatta maintains that progress has been made, Catholic Bishops in April said nothing much has been achieved.
“We have allowed the dragon of corruption to pull us down to the point where we have accepted it to be our way of life.
"The scale and magnitude of the allegations of corruption reported in the media has reached alarming levels and this is threatening the fabric of the society,” Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) chairman Archbishop Philip Anyolo said in a statement.