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Kenyan Finance Minister Henry Rotich pleaded not guilty Tuesday to corruption charges related to the construction of two dams, a rare example of a minister sitting in a court in this country torn apart by corruption.
Rotich and 15 other senior officials appeared in a crowded Nairobi court charged with more than 10 financial crimes, including fraud, abuse of power and bribes, to which they responded. turn: "false".
Rotich returned to police on Monday after the country's Attorney General ordered the arrest of 27 other officials and charged him with a multi-million dollar corruption scandal.
The director of criminal investigations, George Kinoti, said that he would seek arrest warrants against suspects from an Italian contracted firm for the construction of the dams and against those of Kenya who did not not yet rendered.
Two dams were to be built in western Kenya to provide water and electricity to the inhabitants.
But Chief Prosecutor Noordin Haji said the project's design, procurement and payment processes were "tainted with irregularities".
"The investigations showed that government officials had violated all the procurement rules and abused their oath of office to enforce the program," he said.
The contract was awarded to the Italian company CMC di Ravenna in a manner that, according to Haji, was contrary to the appropriate procurement procedures and despite the financial difficulties that forced the company to liquidate.
The same company had previously failed to carry out three mega-dams projects.
According to the contract, the project was to cost $ 450 million (401 million euros), but the Treasury had increased that $ 164 million "regardless of performance or work," said Haji.
& # 39; Abuse of trust
Some $ 180 million has already been paid, no construction is to be demonstrated.
An additional $ 6 million has been disbursed for the resettlement of people living in areas that would be affected by the project, but there is no indication that land has been acquired for this purpose, said the chief prosecutor. .
"I am convinced that economic crimes have been committed and I have therefore approved their arrests and prosecutions," Haji said on Monday.
Rotich has been with the Ministry of Finance since 2013.
"The people we accuse today have been mandated to protect our public interest and have deliberately violated that trust," Haji said.
"Under the pretext of making legitimate commercial transactions, colossal sums have been unjustifiably and illegally paid through a ploy well choreographed by government agents, in collusion with individuals and institutions."
Dozens of senior leaders and government officials have been indicted since last year. President Uhuru Kenyatta pledges to fight corruption. Kenyans have seen hundreds of millions of dollars of public money disappear in the usual scandals.
Kenyatta is the latest in a series of presidents to declare war on corruption, but with a history littered with unresolved cases, many Kenyans see this scourge as an inevitable fact.
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