The six pilots were released from prison and returned to their homeland with the help of president of the Union of Armenia in Russia Ara Abrahamyan. Currently, citizens of the Republic of Armenia are involved in other political activities once again; this time in Kenya. It’s hard to get a total picture of what the Armenians there are actually doing or planning on doing because there are few sources and they are fairly contradicting for that matter. The fact remains that the Kenyan press is discussing the political scandal caused by Armenians. On March 10, MP of the Kenyan parliament and opposition leader Raila Odinga announced on Kenyan national television that Armenians were hired as patrol officers when investigating the offices of the KTN television network and the newspaper “The Standard website”. According to Odinga, four Armenian citizens, who are currently in Nairobi, Kenya came to Kenya in 2005 and met with high deputy police officers. Odinga adds that the Armenians have intimate ties with well-known individuals in Kenya and they are hiding the Armenians from the public eye. Odinga also says that the four Armenians used to live on Posh Runda street in Nairobi, but left after she found out that their secret hide-out. According to Raila, Kenyan police will give more information regarding this soon. However, what’s interesting is that the press only mentions two Armenians with their photographs and personal data. Based on the information, the two Armenians’ names are Artur Sargsyan and Arthur Markaryan and they are brothers.
According to “The Standard website” newspaper, one of the opposition leaders of Kenya Raila Odinga said that the Armenian brothers are hired patrol officers and the Kenyan authorities have used them to organize some attacks on the press. Sargsyan and Markaryan deny the allegations. In fact, they even hosted a press conference on March 13 at the “Jomo Kenyatta” international airport in the capital city Nairobi. There they announced to the people gathered that they were not hired and even if they were, the Kenyan authorities wouldn’t have enough to pay them. A. Sargsyan and A. Markaryan have even claimed that they are relatives of the president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. To be more exact, A. Sargsyan has gone as far as claiming that he is Robert Kocharyan’s cousin and a presidential candidate of Armenia. Besides that, he claims that he is doing business in Kenya by selling expensive gold and precious stones.
Based on the information provided by the newspaper, the Armenian brothers have announced during the conference that they have met with Odinga and representative of the Northern Mvungi police Kalonozo Musyoka and that they have paid the brothers 3 billion shilling (approximately 43 million dollars) to have the MPs give a vote of no confidence to the Kenyan government. But, according to the German DPA news agency, Artur Sargsyan has also claimed that Kenyan opposition leader Odinga has asked Sargsyan for a one and half million loan in order for the opposition to give a vote of no confidence to President Mvayi Kibaki’s administration. During the conference, the two abovementioned citizens of Armenia claimed that they are very rich and are making legal investments in Kenya. It doesn’t end here. According to the Kenyan “The Standard website” newspaper, Raila Odinga is also part of the staff at the Langada Military Police and headed the “exposition of Armenians tied to Kenya’s security and stability”. Raila has denied all allegations and has demanded the Armenian citizens to give evidence.
“However, since the announcement was made after the attack on the buildings of “The Standard website” and KTN, as of right now the only information is the denial of the Kenyan investigation department. The Kanga unity goes along with the denial and has even patrolled the buildings of those mass media at midnight,” as stated in “The Standard Website”. The newspaper adds that the Armenians had assured during the conference that they had lived in the residential area as stated by Raila Odinga. It is clear from the data in the newspaper that A. Sargsyan and A. Markaryan had invited special journalists to the conference, that one of them had left Kenya and both had tried finding financial means to overturn the Kenyan state.
“What’s interesting is that the Armenian citizens hosted their conference in the VIP room of the airport. The VIP room only accepts state and foreign officials. There are security services in the room and you need to show identification to get in. How did the two manage to host the conference there? Which government member let them and, most importantly, why was the person-claiming that the two military police officers had been involved in finding financial means from abroad to overturn the state-allowed to leave the country without letting the police know beforehand?” writes “The Standard website”. It adds: “We are certain that the Armenians are trying to fool Kenyans. The government has to put an end to this once and for all.”
This story continues to be in the center of attention of Kenyan journalists.