Kenyan minister pleads not guilty

Nairobi. Kenya’s Finance minister Henry Rotich pleaded not guilty Tuesday to corruption charges linked to the construction of two dams, a rare example of a sitting minister facing court in the graft-wracked country.

Rotich and 15 other top officials appeared in a packed Nairobi court to be charged with more than 10 financial crimes including fraud, abuse of office and receiving bribes, to which they replied in turn: “not true”.

Rotich handed himself over to police on Monday after the country’s top prosecutor ordered he and 27 other officials be arrested and charged over a multi-million dollar corruption scandal. Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has said he will seek arrest warrants for suspects from an Italian firm contracted to build the dams, and for those in Kenya who have not yet handed themselves in.

Two dams were to be built in western Kenya to provide much-needed water and electricity to residents.

But chief prosecutor Noordin Haji said the conception, procurement and payment processes for the project was “riddled with irregularities”.

“Investigations established that government officials flouted all procurement rules and abused their oath of office to ensure the scheme went through,” he said.

The contract was awarded to Italian firm CMC di Ravenna in a manner Haji said flouted proper procurement procedures, and despite financial woes that forced the company into liquidation.

The same company had previously failed to complete three mega-dam projects. (AFP)