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Kenyan leader tells officials named in anti-graft report to vacate office

Xinhua, March 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Sunday called on governors and other elected leaders mentioned in the anti-graft agency's report to vacate office and allow the due process of the law to be followed.

In a statement issued in Nairobi, Kenyatta said the fact that governors are elected leaders does not absolve them from accountability in accordance with the laws of the land, noting that election does not, and is not intended to confer a licence to loot.

"By virtue of being elected leaders, exercising the sovereign power of the people and having custody of large volumes of public funds, county governors must be held to the highest standard of probity," Kenyatta said.

"To suggest that elective office insures impunity insults the people who elected them and defiles the spirit of democracy and the rule of law," he said.

Kenyatta said those with a clear conscience should follow the law pointing out that with regard to the International Criminal Court (ICC) case which he has been facing with deputy, William Ruto at The Hague, it was not about corruption.

The president was responding to public pronouncements by the Council of Governors who accused him of overstepping his mandate stating any governor named in the report should not step down until constitutional and statutory processes of dealing with all complaints lodged with the Ethics Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) are adhered to.

The governors insisted there was constitutional process on how they can be removed from office and vowed not to vacate office until the deputy president who is facing charges at the global court does the same.

Meanwhile, Kenyatta said Lands, Housing and Urban Development Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu stepped aside on Sunday to allow for ongoing investigations by EACC in line with his directive.

The land's CS move came a day after Kenyatta suspended four cabinet secretaries and other senior government officials implicated in the anti-graft agency report for having been involved in corruption.

Kenyatta also directed that principal secretaries and State- owned institution heads to also vacate the office pending investigating into their corrupt practices. Endi