Kenya’s Finance Minister Henry Rotich has been arrested on fraud and corruption charges.
Rotich and other officials have been indicted in some corrupt dealings related to the construction of two dams.
The Director of Kenya’s Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji ordered the arrest of Rotich and seven others.
Haji said on Monday that Rotich and other top government officials will have to face prosecution over the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal.
The prosecutor said top government officials including the minister did not follow due process in the award of the tender to an Italian firm, CMC Di Ravenna.
According to local media, the company was to finance the Arror and Kimwarer dams project but the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) and the National Treasury went ahead to spend state funds on the ghost projects.
The National Treasury is said to have looked for gotten the approval of the cabinet to spent Sh20.5 billion on the project.
The Italian company was rather supposed to finance the project, but that didn’t happen.
The dams were strongly opposed by the Kenya Forest Service (KFS).
It was not happy with the tracts of forest-covered land that was acquired for the ghost projects.
Source: Africafeeds.com
