Libyan investors officially took possession of the Grand Regency Hotel Tuesday and declared they acquired the prime property legally and would not surrender it.

The deal was negotiated above board with the Kenyan Government, said President Muammar Gaddafi’s special envoy Bashir Saleh Bashir.

“This is a government-to-government arrangement and our businessmen are here to do clean business. We will not give up the hotel because the deal is clean and the President of Kenya invited us to invest in this country,” Mr Bashir said.

The speedy transfer of the hotel was part of the sale agreement between the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Libyan firm which bought the property.

Secret sale

Mr Bashir arrived in Kenya Tuesday morning and went into meetings with government officials.

Mr Bashir met President Kibaki at State House in the morning before addressing a news conference organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Grand Regency Hotel.

His visit to Kenya was to state the Libyan position after the secret sale of the five-star hotel to Libyan Arab African Investment Kenya Company, which sparked a storm that led to the “stepping aside” of Finance minister Amos Kimunya.

A Cabinet committee chaired by Prime Minister Raila Odinga indicted CBK governor Njuguna Ndung’u and CBK secretary to the board Kennedy Abuga, recommending that they step aside to allow for investigations.

A commission of inquiry headed by former Chief Justice Majid Cockar has already been set up and is due to start an investigation into the affair on Monday. It will receive the views of people with information regarding the controversial sale.

Another House committee headed by Nambale MP Chris Okemo is already investigating the controversial sale.

When asked how much was paid for the hotel, Mr Bashir consulted delegation members before saying it was bought for US$ 45 million (Sh 2.9 billion) - Sh1.8 billion was spent on land while Sh1.1 billion covered the value of the hotel.

He said the full amount was paid in May to the CBK.

“We are law-abiding and cannot behave as if we are above the law. Let those investigations about the sale continue and we shall be guided by the laws of this land,” said Mr Bashir who was accompanied by 10 chief executives of various Libyan businesses in Kenya and southern Africa.

He said he met President Kibaki to discuss issues affecting the African continent and conveyed special messages of goodwill from the Libyan Head of State.

He told the news conference: “We are investing in over 35 African countries and Kenya is not an exception.”

Mr Bashir said Kenyan investors were free to do business in Libya, just as it was doing in South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Morocco and many others.

Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi inspected the venue of the conference in advance and the protocol officer, a Mr Pariner, hastily interrupted the media briefing when journalist asked questions to establish more facts about the sale.

Mr Bashir said he was chief-of-staff in Libya, an equivalent rank to the Head of Public Service in Kenya. He enumerated various projects his country was undertaking in Kenya and Africa.

The Gaddafi envoy spent about 45 minutes in the hotel and met former Foreign Affairs minister Raphael Tuju. The lawyer who represented them in the sale, Mr Adan Mohammed, arrived moments before Mr Bashir left.

The Libya Africa Investment Portfolio, which Mr Bashir heads, is the government investment authority, funding all companies carrying out Libyan financial activities outside the North African country.

Junior officers

The sale of the hotel has been controversial since Lands minister James Orengo revealed that title deeds and other instruments of transfer were secured secretly in his ministry and disclosed how his junior officers were threatened and ordered to release the documents.

Attorney-General Amos Wako disowned the sale, saying he was not consulted, while the director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), Mr Justice Aaron Ringera also rejected Mr Kimunya’s claims that he was aware of the deal.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who Mr Kimunya claimed also knew about the sale, said he only inquired from KACC and the Central Bank of Kenya what was going on since the matter had been raised in Parliament.

Oil pipeline

Mr Odinga formed a taskforce led by Mr Wako, whose report called for the resignation of Mr Kimunya, Prof Ndung’u and the director general of the National Security Intelligence Service, Maj-Gen Michael Gichangi. Mr Bashir described the Kenya Oil Refineries and the oil pipeline supposed to connect Kenya and Uganda as a major investment but the shareholding was still being worked out.

At the Press conference, he was accompanied by the chairman of the Libyan African Investment Company Kenya Ltd, Mr Amear Ahmed, and the president of Oilibya, Mr Ali Shamak.