NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya’s Finance Minister Henry Rotich pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to corruption charges over the award of two dam tenders, a day after his detention in an unprecedented move against a sitting minister in a country notorious for graft.
Dressed in a suit and tie and standing next to his number two at the ministry, Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge, Rotich denied the charges as they were read out to him by prosecutors before the anti-corruption court in Nairobi.
The charges against Rotich stem from a police investigation into the misuse of funds in two dam projects overseen by Italian construction company CMC Di Ravenna.
The two dams were budgeted to cost 46 billion shillings ($446 million), but the treasury borrowed 63 billion instead, Noordin Haji, the director of public prosecutions, said on Monday, needlessly ratcheting up Kenya’s ballooning public debt, which stands at around 55 percent of GDP.
Kenyan prosecutors have requested help from British and Italian authorities, he said, and more charges could result.
The minister is charged alongside 27 other senior officials, including Italian Paolo Porcelli, the director of CMC di Ravenna.
“They broke the law on public finance management under the guise of carrying out legitimate commercial transactions, colossal amounts were unjustifiably and illegally paid out through a well choreographed scheme by government officers in collusion with private individuals and institutions,” Haji told a news conference on Monday.
The indictment of Rotich will send shockwaves through the political elite, who are accustomed to lurid graft scandals resulting in little official action. Rotich’s arrest may also be seen as further evidence of growing distance between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
Rotich was appointed at Ruto’s request. Ruto has made clear that he expects to receive the ruling coalition’s nomination for the presidency in the 2022, despite objections from some in Kenyatta’s camp. Kenyatta will have served two terms and be ineligible to run again.
Earlier this year, Rotich’s questioning by police provoked an angry reaction among politicians from Ruto and Rotich’s powerful Kalenjin ethnic group. Their home area saw some of the worst violence after the disputed 2007 elections, in which 1,200 people died.
“You are arresting many people because you want to destroy William Ruto’s people,” lawmaker Oscar Sudi told local media in March. “Us, as Rift Valley leaders, are tired of nonsense.”
But Haji closed his press conference with a pointed warning against politicians using the case to score points.
“Corruption always fights back,” he said. “There may be elements who may seek to exploit these indictments to instigate social unrest.”
The government would be watching, he said, and would respond robustly. – Reuters
