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Kenya forms team to probe senior officials linked to graft

Xinhua, March 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenyan authorities on Monday constituted a multi-agency team tasked with investigating senior individuals named in the anti-graft agency's corruption report which was submitted in parliament by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

A joint statement from the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) said the team is mandated with safeguarding standards of investigation and citizens' interests.

"The multi-agency team has been constituted in order to satisfy the public interest, standards and expectations," said the statement which was released in Nairobi.

The Office of Director of Public Prosecutions donated a team of prosecutors to work with the EACC team to boost the capacity while CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro had been asked to supply a team to bolster the process.

The taskforce was formed following a meeting between EACC boss Halakhe Waqo and DPP Keriako Tobiko on the next steps in the cases.

There has been public concern over the duration it would take to exhaustively probe all the cases, after Kenyatta directed officials who appeared in EACC graft report to step down for investigations to be carried out.

The team was formed following deliberations on how to progress on the cases which are either complete or at an advanced stage of investigations.

Kenyatta moved to tackle rampant corruption in his government last Thursday by ordering 175 - all senior public officers adversely mentioned in various graft scandals to step aside.

Kenyatta who delivered the State of the Nation Address in parliament said the latest EACC report which he tabled in the House contains a "catalogue of allegations of high-level corruption" against all arms and levels of government.

He has since suspended cabinet secretaries - Felix Kosgey (Agriculture), Davis Chirchir (Energy), Michael Kamau (Transport), Kazungu Kambi (Labor) and Charity Ngilu (Lands and Housing).

The drastic move came after the Kenyan leader reactivated two state agencies to help speed up fight against rampant internal graft which has increased in the past two years.

Kenyatta has revived the Efficiency Monitoring Unit and the Inspectorate of State Corporation to bolster the new push to wage an internal war against corruption.

The president also issued Executive Order issued mid this month, cautioning public servants on ethics and integrity.

The East Africa nation's biggest economy has been on the spotlight since a private firm's directors from Britain and U.S. were earlier in the year found guilty of bribing Kenyan officials to award them tenders to supply printing services and to buy tyres respectively. Endi