Pandora Paper: British MP claims she didn’t know her flat was owned by the Kenyatta family

British Member of Parliament (MP) Emma Hardy has denied knowing that the sh.152 million flat she was living in London is owned by the Kenyatta family.

After Hardy was shown the findings from the Pandora Papers, a spokesperson for the MP said: “Emma had absolutely no knowledge of this.

She signed a standard tenancy agreement through a reliable agency approved by the independent organisation that administers MPs’ accommodation costs.

She is shocked at what this investigation has uncovered, and believes it shows why more transparency is urgently needed.”

The documents reveal that family members have used offshore companies to own three properties in the United Kingdom. One, is the flat near Westminster in London mentioned above.

The flat was secretly bought in 2000 by Mama Ngina Kenyatta and her two daughters; Wambui Pratt and Anna Nyokabi Muthama.

The Pandora Papers also showed that Muhoho Kenyatta, the president’s younger brother who manages large sections of the family’s businesses, owned an offshore company with a portfolio of cash, stocks, and bonds worth over Sh.3 billion in 2016.

Other documents in the leak show a foundation set up in Panama in 2003 for the president’s now 88 year-old mother, “Mama” Ngina Kenyatta. Upon her death, all the assets held in the foundation were to pass to her son, Uhuru.

Emma Ann Hardy is a British Labour Party politician. She has been the Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since the 2017 general election.

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party led by Keir Starmer, elected leader in 2020. It is the largest party in the UK with over 500,000 members, with a significant presence in the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd.