Non-Profit Organization Gets Kenya Court to Temporarily Suspend Diplomatic Immunity for Bill Gates
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From [HERE] The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation no longer has diplomatic immunity and privileges in Kenya, at least for now. Kenya’s High Court suspended the immunity after the Law Society of Kenya filed a legal challenge against the government.
The Kenyan government in October recognized the Gates Foundation and its employees as a charitable trust with special rights in Kenya, under the Privileges and Immunities Act. The new status exempted the foundation and its employees in Kenya from legal action for acts performed in Kenya as part of official duties.
However, the Nov. 25 ruling by Justice Bahati Mwamuye suspends the immunity until at least Feb. 5, 2025, when a court will “review progress and set a hearing date for oral submissions on the petition.”
The ruling also requires all defendants, including Kenya’s minister of foreign affairs and the State Law Office, “to collect, preserve, and compile all documentation regarding the privileges granted to the Gates Foundation, including details of the cooperation agreement,” under threat of legal consequences for non-compliance.
The Gates Foundation and the Kenyan government have until Dec. 10 to respond, Eastleigh Voice reported.
The diplomatic privileges allowed the Gates Foundation “to engage in contracts, legal actions, and property transactions within the country” and granted the foundation “tax exemptions and immunityfrom legal actions related to their official duties,” leaving many Kenyans “with raised eyebrows,” Kenyans.co.ke reported.
In its legal challenge, the Law Society of Kenya said the immunity “undermines public interest and constitutional principles” and argued that the government’s decision should be declared null and void.
Gates ‘holds governments ransom’
Dr. David Bell, a public health physician and senior scholar at the Brownstone Institute, said the High Court’s suspension “shows the Kenyan system is functioning as it should.”
“From the point of view of the average Kenyan citizen, granting immunity to a large collection of foreigners working for a private foundation … with financial interests in the drugs they are being told to take should be really alarming,” Bell said.
Shabnam Palesa Mohamed, executive director of Children’s Health Defense Africa and founder of the health advocacy organization Transformative Health Justice, said Gates “operates from a position of immense financial wealth and thus political clout. Through using mechanisms of the carrot (funding) and the stick (withdrawal of funding), he holds governments ransom.”
Mohamed called the Kenyan government’s decision to offer the Gates Foundation immunity “horrifying” and said it shows “our governments are captured.”
She added:
“The negative consequences of this shocking decision are far-reaching. They include the erosion of accountability, unequal treatment in the law, damage to national sovereignty, the mockery of public transparency and participation.”
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Tim Hinchliffe, editor of The Sociable, said he believes Gates’ efforts to attain diplomatic immunity in countries like Kenya are connected to a profit motive.
“Wherever Gates goes, he stuffs his pockets under the guise of philanthropy while he sits back and collects his returns on investment, no matter the outcome,” Hinchliffe said.
“When you have that much wealth and power — when you have an organization that contributes more to the annual WHO [World Health Organization] budget than most nation-states — then you can buy your way into anything you want, including diplomatic immunity,” Hinchliffe said. “But, that immunity can only last so long.”
For other experts, Gates’ drive to attain diplomatic immunity is an effort to shield himself from legal consequences for his actions and those of the Gates Foundation.
Dr. Meryl Nass, founder of Door to Freedom, told The Defender, “It should be assumed that no one entity would seek such immunity unless they thought they might be at risk of legal penalties.”
Nass added:
“Gates has been charged with many crimes, including for monopolistic business practices, for conducting a clinical trial involving girls in India that was associated with child deaths and lack of informed consent. He has certainly been accused of false advertising of agricultural products in India and Africa.”
Francis Boyle, J.D., Ph.D., professor of international law at the University of Illinois, said, “It is pretty bizarre that they gave Gates privileges and immunities under their domestic legislation in the first place. Obviously, this was an attempt by Gates to shield himself and his accomplices from criminal prosecution and civil liability in Kenya.”
Gates is currently facing a lawsuit in The Netherlands filed by seven COVID-19 vaccine injury victims, and faces legal challenges in at least one other country, India, for damages connected to the vaccines.
