British American Tobacco 'bribed' Kenyan politician Martha Karua to stop action against cigarette smuggling

One of the UK’s biggest companies made secret political donations to a presidential candidate in Africa in a bid to block a rival firm winning a multimillion-pound contract.
British American Tobacco (BAT) paid £50,000 to Kenyan politician Martha Karua, a former Justice Minister, to prevent a rival company supplying Kenya with technology to combat cigarette smuggling.

In return for the donations, paid in cash via a middle man, BAT obtained key confidential Kenyan Revenue Authority (KRA) documents outlining the £100m five-year contract for new technology designed to stamp out tobacco smuggling. They then had the contract deliberately delayed while they secretly lobbied to get their own system chosen.

The secret donations were falsely listed in BAT accounts as payments for management fees or as expenses incurred in anti-smuggling operations.