Kenya safe for terrorist money laundering

Despite suffering several terrorist attacks through Somalia, Kenya’s security are yet to subject the start-up and operation of multi-million dollar financial institutions to surveillance to intercept the (terrorist) financial infrastructure and other funds laundered from drugs and other proceeds of crime.For lack of abiding legislation on money laundering, of which proscribed remittance banks Dalsan and Al Barakaat were classic culprits, Kenya’s vulnerability as a famed narcotics trade route and terrorist haven continue to worry the international community.
Terrorist funding, The combination of corruption, lack of laws and enforcement creates a deadly mix of banks, forex-bureaux, rogue stockbrokers and other companies.Kenya’s notoriety over money laundering and tracking of capital from proceeds of crime was the focus of the first Pan African Anti-Money Laundering conference in Nairobi in November last year, attended by African experts on money laundering and terrorist funding."This region is seen as corrupt… (with) a large level of drug trafficking taking place in Kenya," said Mr John Sawers, the director of InSync Ltd, which organised the conference in conjunction with LaFear Group of the US explaining the rationale for choosing the Kenyan venue."We need to start a process of education," said Sawers. The parley, postponed once, owing to Government reluctance to support it, sought to foster the adoption of legislation to track drug money and terrorist financing, through Kenya.Drugs and money laundering and terrorism are said to represent different sides of the same coin.Recent privatisation, amid rogue stock brokerages, has raised new possibilities for the laundering of dirty money, prompting the involvement of Capital Markets Authority and the US, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that were barred from the Nairobi meetings...more..http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144006935&cid=4