Prime Minister Raila Odinga said former ally Agriculture Minister William Ruto and Education Minister Sam Ongeri should step aside for three months to allow further investigations into scandals in subsidised maize and education programmes.
“I am taking this action because two recent investigations … have laid credible foundations for the two ministers to be investigated,” the prime minister said in a statement.
Donors and Kenyans have long called for leaders in the unity government to take a tougher line with influential individuals blamed for a raft of major graft cases that have tainted several important sectors of east Africa’s biggest economy.
Kibaki’s office said he had suspended eight officials, also for three months, after they were “mentioned adversely” in reports on the work of the subsidised maize scheme and Kenya’s free primary education programme.
“President Kibaki once again reaffirmed the government’s commitment to fighting corruption and assured of speedy and conclusive investigations on use of public resources,” Kibaki’s office said in a statement.
Donors will welcome the action against senior figures, who include officials from the National Cereals and Produce Board and the permanent secretaries in the ministries of agriculture, education, special programmes and prime minister’s office.
Unhappy coalition
But many Kenyans said the move by Kibaki highlighted growing rifts between the president and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader who became prime minister after talks to end post-election in 2008 that killed at least 1,300 people.
Tensions have risen since Kibaki allies were implicated in the education scandal, then senior Odinga allies were implicated in the bigger maize procurement case.
The issue of how to deal with high level corruption has soured relations in recent weeks. Among the suspended officials were Mohammed Isahakia, permanent secretary in Odinga’s office, and the prime minister’s chief of staff, Karol Omondi.
The US and Britain have both banned a number of Kenyans from travelling to their countries because of graft. In January, the US ambassador warned that Kenya risked another eruption of violence even before its next presidential poll in 2012 if reforms were not put in place soon.
In an editorial, Kenya’s Sunday Nation newspaper said the developments posed a grave danger to the fate of much-needed reforms, and were particularly regrettable because Kibaki and Odinga had been working well together at the start of the year.
“The newfound unity in the coalition saw the country make major strides in a relatively short period of time,” it said. “This rosy outlook has been disrupted by the infighting within the cabinet in the last few weeks. Kenyan politicians seem never to miss an opportunity to shoot themselves in the foot.”