A UAE businessman has denied allegations in a US cable that he offered gifts to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete as well as donating $1 million to the ruling party in exchange for investment deals in the east African country. The managing director of Albwardy Investment, which is owned by Dubai-based investor Ali Albwardy, described the accusations published by WikiLeaks from a February 2006 US cable as “monstrous and totally untrue”. “At no time has a bribe been either requested or given to President Kikwete by Mr. Ali Albwardy, the UAE owner of the Kilimanjaro hotel,” Philip d'Abo said in a statement issued via the president's office in Tanzania Wednesday. A spokesman for the Tanzanian president's office Monday also denied Kikwete had accepted gifts from Albwardy. The US cable said Albwardy, who owns a hotel chain in Tanzania, flew the African leader to London on a shopping trip and bought designer suits for the president. “At no time has Mr. Albwardy either paid for the airfare for the president to visit London or purchased even one suit for him from Savile Row. This is a total fabrication as is the part concerning the $1 million donation to the CCM by Mr. Albwardy,” he said. “At no time has Ali Albwardy given President Kikwete anything that can be construed as a bribe ... the president feels equally upset to be falsely accused particularly as the source of this memorandum is supposedly a representative of both a friend and an ally.” The US cable comes at a sensitive time for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party as it faces potential political fallout from graft allegations against some other senior members, including a former prime minister.
