I am not guilty: Rotich Kenya’s finance minister

Kenya’s finance minister Henry Rotich has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges over the award of two dam tenders.

The cabinet secretary made the plea today in a Nairobi court, a day after he was sensationally arrested for graft charges. It was the first time in Kenya that a sitting minister would be arrested for suspected corruption.

Kenya Standard newspaper said Rotich denied the charges as they were read out to him by prosecutors before a packed anti-corruption court in Nairobi.

Rotich was due to be freed on bail after his lawyers argued he was not a flight risk. He was accused alongside other senior officials of conspiring to defraud the public, among other charges, having spent the night in a police cell.

Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti granted him bail on a cash surety of 15 million shillings ($145,000) and ordered Rotich to visit his office only under supervision, calling it a crime scene.

Dressed in a gray pinstripe suit and yellow tie, Rotich denied the charges before a packed Nairobi court. Not all the 28 accused were in court, but all 20 who were also pleaded not guilty.

The case stems from an investigation into the misuse of funds in two dam projects planned in western Kenya, overseen by Italian construction company CMC Di Ravenna.

Government will also seek the extradition of Paolo Porcelli, the Italian director of CMC di Ravenna, to face charges, the director of public prosecutions told Reuters on Tuesday.

“We have the Italian individual, he has not managed to present himself so we will be seeking for his extradition to come and face the charges here in Kenya. We will also issue an international arrest warrant,” Noordin Haji said.

CMC di Ravenna has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement on Monday, the company said it had not been informed of “any official communication from the Kenyan authorities… CMC is certain of the correctness of the work of the company and its representatives, both in Italy and abroad”.

The two dams were budgeted to cost 46 billion shillings ($446 million) but the treasury borrowed 63 billion instead, Haji said on Monday, needlessly ratcheting up Kenya’s ballooning public debt, which stands at around 55% of GDP.