Kenya Prosecutor Targets 3 Cabinet Secretaries in Probe: Star

(Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s State prosecutor may question three cabinet secretaries next week in an ongoing graft investigation involving high-ranking government officials, Star Newspaper reported, citing the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti.

Investigations began last week with National Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich, who was questioned for three consecutive days on his role in authorizing advance payments for the construction of two dams.

The prosecutor wants to question Eugene Wamalwa, Mwangi Kiunjuri and Simon Chelugui, the Devolution, Agriculture and Water and Sanitation cabinet secretaries, respectively, the Star said. Other parties in the Kimwarer and Aror dam projects, where billions of shillings is suspected to have been lost in fraudulent contracts and payments, will be questioned, the newspaper said.

The sum under investigation is 65 billion shillings ($652 million), out of which 21 billion shillings has already been paid out.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bella Genga in Nairobi at bgenga2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steve Geimann at sgeimann@bloomberg.net, ;Matthew G. Miller at mmiller144@bloomberg.net, Dulue Mbachu

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