Nairobi – Kenya’s president reshuffled his cabinet on Tuesday to replace five ministers who are being investigated for graft and one who resigned over the weekend after being accused of corruption.
President Uhuru Kenyatta replaced ministers for transport and infrastructure, agriculture, energy and petroleum, and lands and labour, who vacated office in March to allow for the investigation on graft allegations that implicates them. The former Planning and Devolution Minister Anne Waiguru resigned on Saturday citing health reasons after she was accused of corruption.
Kenyatta said an objective of the reshuffle is to ensure the accountability of public officials in the discharge of their mandate. Kenyatta’s nearly 3-year-old regime has come under heavy criticism for inaction against graft which American Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec earlier this month described as a crisis.
Kenyatta declared corruption a national security threat Monday and presented a raft of measures to fight the graft that is endemic in East Africa’s largest economy.
The president’s announcement was received with scepticism by analysts. John Githongo, a former Kenyan government adviser who exposed millions of dollars in government corruption in the previous regime, said Kenyatta’s credibility in taking action against corruption is very low. Githongo said he does not expect anything will change following the president’s announcement.
Kenya ranked a low 145 out of 174 countries in the Transparency International 2014 index of how common graft is perceived to be among citizens of various countries.
-AP
