Caption : National Bank of Kenya Chairman and Francis Atwoli under-study Mohammed Hassan For those who may not be in the know, any journalist that covers a Francis Atwoli press-conference is eligible for a 5,000 bribe, normally in a sealed brown envelope. The phrase "brown envelope journalism" actually emanated from the despicable practice by the COTU Secretary General, who has used money to bribe journalists and remain relevant for decades.
Atwoli is the man behind the death of former Kabete MP George Muchai and is known to have a hit squad that erases any threat to his position. It affords him all the luxury in this world and opens doors to serve his burgeoning ego, not necessarily the workers he purports to serve.
Indeed after we first linked him with complicity to the losses at National Bank of Kenya, our editor Cyprian Nyakundi started receiving death threats from individuals and bots invoking Francis Atwoli's name. "We will deal with you as we did with Muchai" read one message.
Representing workers, Atwoli has been a director at National Bank, serving the interests of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) who are the biggest shareholders at 48.06%. The question is, what did the vocal Francis Atwoli and the Managing Trustee Richard Langat know?
The truth is that National Bank's CEO Munir Ahmed, together with the Chairman Mohammed Hassan and the entire board lied to the market - perhaps the loss is explained as follows - in June 2015 they declared a Kshs. 1.7 Billion half-year profit based on building sales that actually never took place - add the fact that they hid non-performing loans by almost 90% - making Kshs. 1.7 Billion (fake profit + 1.2 loss announced today) equalling Kshs. 3.9 Billion loss.
This is really simply arithmetic that wouldn't need anyone to be a chartered accountant, because National Bank's figures were fictitious and cooked. In our previous article, we had announced that a loss of Ksh. 4 Billion will be posted and today, NBK has gone ahead to understate the financial position for short-term expediency.
The truth is that Munir Ahmed Sheikh the suspended CEO, the entire board chaired by Mohammed Hassan who was introduced to the world of corporate fraud by Jimnah Mbaru and COTU Secretary General Francis Atwoli together with the Managing Trustee of NSSF Richard Langat have been complicit and beneficiaries of the axis of fraud.
Now they are planning to call a press-conference so as to react to the claims made on this website, using their PR Company ScanGroup, by bribing business journalists and editors like Terryanne Chebet, Wallace Kantai and the likes, who have sold their souls and overseen the country's flagship institutions go down at the hands of greedy individuals.
The entire National Bank of Kenya Board, the entire office of COTU and the entire NSSF board of Trustees should be send packing, awaiting investigations. Munir Sheikh could not have acted alone and without the consent of the board that includes Eurobond thief Henry Rotich. All of them were complicit and oversaw the collapse of a bank that had Kshs. 34 Billion in its reserves.