Kenya to prosecute 29 suspects in anti-corruption purge

Kenya will in the next few days arraign in court 29 public officers on various corruptions charges following recommendations by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the country's anti-corruption watchdog said on Sunday.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Halakhe Waqo told a media briefing in Nairobi that so far, 19 public officers have been charged following a renewed anti-corruption that began two months ago.

"The EACC will on Monday submit, to the DPP, files on four cabinet secretaries who were suspended by the president in March to pave way for investigations," Waqo said.

The suspects were named in a report containing 124 cases that were tabled in parliament by the President in March.

Waqo said his commission has finalized investigations of 56 files, out of which 21 files have been forwarded to the DPP.

"The rest are currently undergoing evidence analysis by the EACC's legal team and will be soon forwarded to the DPP," he said.

The state officers who were mentioned in the report were directed to step aside from office for 60 days pending investigations.

"We wish to point out that investigations sometimes take long depending on various factors such as the complexity of their nature and support from various stakeholders in the retrieval of evidence," Waqo, who is also the Secretary of the EACC, said, adding that "it could not be possible to finalize all the matters within 60 days."

According to the EACC, it is important that investigations are not hurriedly undertaken in order to avoid the risk of all evidence not being critically analyzed.

The anti-corruption watchdog said the public officers will only be cleared once all allegations against them are fully investigated and the concerned public officers vindicated. Endi