Kenyan president announces resignations of ministers

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki today announced the resignations of his energy and education ministers in corruption scandals.

In an address on state-owned television Monday Kibaki said that the two ministers had left government to allow for investigations into corruption scandals implicating them to be carried out.

Kiraitu Murungi, who was energy minister, has been linked to several multimillion pound scandals.

George Saitoti, who was education minister, has been implicated in Kenya’s biggest financial scandal, a scam dating to the early 1990s and to Kibaki’s predecessor.

Kibaki’s finance minister resigned a week ago in the scandal linked to Murungi.

Kibaki won elections in 2002 promising to root out the corruption that had become endemic under the 24-year rule of his predecessor, President Daniel arap Moi. Now, though, Kibaki is accused of failing to keep his own house in order.