Kenya: Why Good Faith is Essential in Bill On Money Laundering - AllAfrica.com

Emmanuel Wetang'ula

Money laundering is the procedure by which big amounts of illegally obtained money, lets state from drug trafficking or terrorist activity, is given the visual aspect of having originated from a legitimate source.

If done successfully, it allows the felons to keep control over their return and ultimately to supply a legitimate screen for their beginning of income.

It is not an offense in Republic Of Kenya and immense sums of money of money earned from criminal activities may simply be sanitised through our fiscal establishments without any action being taken by law enforcement agencies.

However, the above place may not last for long since it is pending before the grand House in the word form of the Return of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2008.

The argument before the House have been serious. Both sides of the watershed agree that the Bill is well intended, but its enforcement may conflict on the cardinal rights of Kenyans.

Despite its good intentions, attention must be taken to guarantee that it makes not take away rights recognised by the Fundamental Law in the name of fighting crime, the restrictions to such as rights as provided by the law is sufficient.

This law is penal in nature and some of the projected punishments are draconian. A menace of a seven-year jail term, a mulct of Sh2.5 million and forfeiture of place is not a smack on the wrist.

Hence, the proposition that regulations of grounds applicable in civil legal proceeding shall use to legal proceeding on application for arrogation or retrain order wings in the human face of the fact that such as a penal law necessitates a higher load of cogent evidence on the portion of the state.

Reading through some of the arguments made in the House, there is no uncertainty some of our mononuclear phagocyte system are ignorant of the fact that Republic Of Kenya acceded to the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988. This is one of the international responses to fighting this vice, and Republic Of Kenya acceded to the pact on October 19, 1992.

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The procedure we are currently piquant in is to domesticate the pact so that it may be law in Kenya. As such, we are limited by the commissariat of international law as every pact in military unit is binding upon political parties to it and must be performed by them in good faith.

This philosophy is referred to as pacta sunt servanda. This good religion footing of pacts connotes that a political party to the pact cannot raise commissariat of its domestic law as justification for a failure to perform. Further treatments on the projected law are necessary.

Wetang'ula is an advocator of the High Court.

Prison Sentences for Ringleaders of Global Software Counterfeit Syndicate

Sentencing signalings the end of Taiwan-based operation, the biggest known
manufacturer and distributer of bogus Microsoft merchandises in the human race from 1997
to 2003. REDMOND, Wash., Feb. Four /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Prison sentences
handed down to forgers by a Taipei, Taiwan, tribunal grade the end of a
string of successful prosecutions by international law enforcement
agencies, bringing a planetary software system counterfeiting ring to a concluding halt. Between 1997 and 2003, Huang Jer-sheng, proprietor of the Taipei-based
distributor Maximus Technology Inc., and his associates were responsible
for the production and statistical distribution of more than than 90 percentage of the
high-quality imitative Microsoft software system merchandises either seized by law
enforcement or test-purchased around the world. (Logo: ) The mob produced imitation versions of at least 21 Microsoft
software merchandises in seven known languages, English, French, German,
Italian, Polish, Portuguese and simplified Chinese, deserving an estimated $900
million (U.S.). These merchandises were then distributed and ultimately sold to
unwitting resellers and consumers in over 600 metropolises and at least 22 known
countries and parts across the globe: Australia, Austria, Canada, China,
Croatia, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Paraguay,
Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad
and Tobago, the United Kingdom and the United States. Following an drawn-out probe and prosecution by the Taiwanese
authorities, assisted by Microsoft Corp., Huang Jer-sheng was sentenced to
four years' imprisonment on Dec. 31, 2007, equaling the longer sentence
handed down for this type of law-breaking in Taiwan's history. Huang Jer-sheng's
three co-defendants were sentenced the same twenty-four hours to imprisonment terms
ranging from 18 calendar months to 3 years. "The prison house sentences handed down in this lawsuit in China -- and the
dozens of other criminal lawsuits brought by public prosecutors around the world
against others associated with these Taiwan-based suspects -- provide
another blunt reminder of the effects of counterfeiting Microsoft
products," said Saint David Finn, associate full general advocate for Worldwide
Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft, speaking at the 4th
Global United States Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy, Dubai. "Microsoft
applauds the work of the Chinese government in taking such as strong
enforcement action against this syndicate. This lawsuit is another testament
to the strong partnership between local law enforcement government and
private companies, and shows the impact those partnerships can have got in
getting imitation software system off the marketplace and bringing criminal
counterfeiters to justice." Huang Jer-sheng and his associates worked with forgers in both
Taiwan and southern China. Two cadmium reproduction works in Taiwan, Chungtek
Hightech Enterprise Ltd. and Cinway Technology Co., were the main
production centres for imitation software system phonograph records and constituents that were
later establish throughout the world. According to Toilet Newton, director of the Intellectual Place Crime
project at INTERPOL, "The felons behind imitation mobs are
organized, resourceful and willing to pass big amounts of money to
develop and ship pirated commodity to marketplaces all over the world. Piracy is a
crime, pure and simple, and it is imperative we organize our efforts
across the Earth to halt these criminal mobs and this illicit trade." The prosecutions of this international ring of counterfeiters, led by
Huang Jer-sheng, grade the apogee of a figure of complex, global
investigations conducted over a six-year period, which resulted in the
total dismantling of this criminal counterfeiting syndicate. The
investigations and prosecutions spanned five continents and resulted in the
imposition of important prison house footing in Asia, North United States and Europe. In improver to these prosecutions in Taiwan, other noteworthy criminal cases
related to this international ring of forgers were brought against
suppliers in China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States
between 2001 and 2007. The Microsoft Genuine Software Initiative These legal actions are portion of Microsoft's attempts to battle software
piracy through its Genuine Software Initiative. Microsoft launched the
Genuine Software Enterprise in 2006, and since then it have intensified its
efforts to protect clients and transmission channel spouses from the hazards of
counterfeit software system through an increased focusing on education, engineering
and enforcement. More information about Microsoft's Genuine Software
Initiative is available at . About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: ) is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that aid people and concerns realize
their full potential.