There is now mounting evidence that elite financial interests are planning to create a new tax haven – to add another node to the global spider web. This time it is on the African continent, which already gives far more to than it receives from the world economy......If successful, this hub will be a key mechanism to extract even more wealth from some of the world’s poorest countries.

Until now, there hasn’t been a major tax haven in mainland Africa. Attempts have been made in the past to create one – always at the behest of huge, Western financial institutions, be that Barclays’ efforts in Ghana or the bungled attempts in Botswana – but we may now be looking at the most serious attempt to date. Kenya, it seems, may be in the sights of the tax haven capital of the world: The City of London.

This time, the Corporation of the City of London is trying to expand its shadow economy into Kenya. The City of London and its ‘independent’ lobbying arm, CityUK, have been conducting high-level negotiations to help the country develop as an ‘International Financial Centre’.

This may sound like a benign and even worthwhile activity. Kenya, after all, must develop, and being an International Financial Centre sounds like a good way of going about it. But what does being an “International Financial Centre” actually mean?

When speaking to business insiders, the Kenyan authorities are clear. Alex Owino, a project manager at Kenya’s Finance Ministry, told a meeting in the City of London in 2011 that they plan for Nairobi to become a regional ‘offshore’ financial services hub, modelled on Ireland.

Nick Shaxson, author of Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men who Stole the World, has no doubts. "Make no mistake. This is a tax haven they want to set up. International Financial Centre is a euphemism”, he says. Commenting on their inspiration, he continues, “Ireland is a swamp of regulatory laxity, which is how they have attracted so much money. This is the business model of a tax haven: secrecy, financial regulatory laxity, tax loopholes. What is Kenya's offering going to be?”