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Kenya charges water minister's son-in-law with fraud

by Reuters
Friday, 30 September 2011 14:22 GMT

By Humphrey Malalo

NAIROBI, Sept 30 (Reuters)- The son-in-law of Kenya's water minister pleaded not guilty on Friday to conspiring to defraud the ministry, in a rare case some analysts said showed the government was beginning to get serious about fighting graft.

Billy Indeche, who is married to the daughter of Water Minister Charity Ngilu, is one of eight people charged with collaborating to cheat the ministry out of more than 26.4 million shillings ($264,700) in connection with a tender for drilling boreholes.

Among Indeche's co-defendants is Dennis Apaa, husband of Tourism Assistant Minister Cecily Mbarire.

"(The case) may signal a change in the way government views corruption, that it is willing to deal with people who enjoy political power or their relatives by association," said Omar Hassan, a commissioner at the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights.

"The message is that people with proximity to power are not immune from prosecution," he said.

The case follows an investigation by the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission (KACC) into contracts awarded to firms by the water ministry.

All eight suspects denied the charges and were released on cash bail until Oct. 14, when they are expected back in court.

Late last year, Ngilu was questioned over the handing of tenders to firms with which the KACC said she had links.

Corruption has tarnished the image of east Africa's biggest economy. The KACC estimates Kenya loses up to 40 percent of its gross domestic product to graft annually.[ID: nL03387324]

Earlier this month, KACC head Patrick Lumumba resigned as required under new anti-graft legislation passed in August. Many Kenyans were disappointed at the departure of the respected lawyer, seeing him as a breath of fresh air in what many consider Kenya's endlessly disappointing fight against graft.

For a factbox on corruption in Kenya, click on ($1 = 99.750 Kenyan Shillings) (Additional reporting by Wangui Kanina; editing by Richard Lough and Tim Pearce)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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