Kenya's Erratic Finance Minister Down

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Kenya’s embattled Finance Minister Amos Kimunya succumbed to public pressure and stepped aside in order for the on going investigations on his financial wrong doings to take place.

He had denied selling Nairobi’s Grand Regency Hotel to a Libyan investment company related to President Muammar Gaddafi but the saga took a new twist when it emerged that the Hotel was illegally sold in an under deal and under priced.

Minister Kimunya then told the press that indeed the hotel had been sold with President Kibaki’s approval. In a sense, Kimunya was telling Kenya that he was only dealing for the president.

President Mwai Kibaki himself has kept numb on the issue as public pressure started to zero on him.
Last week, Kenya’s parliament passed a vote of no confidence on the embattled minister amid denials that he was to blame for the financial dealings with Libya. “I am totally innocent” he said, but he had over passed all Sale of Public property procedures.

He went on chest thumping that 2.9 Billion Kenya shillings was the best deal Kenya could get for the hotel. But nobody told Kenyans why the hotel had to be sold in the first place, and if it was necessary, why were Kenyans kept out of the dark? Why were Kenyans not given first priority in the acquisition of the hotel?

Then on Sunday, Kimunya together with Uhuru Kenyatta held an open air meeting to drum up support for the besieged minister in his Piripiri constituency. “I would rather die than resign”, Kimunya was reported saying. Like a dying animal, Kimunya made strange moves, even implicating the whistle blower, Minister of Lands in who’se office the lans certificate for the hotel was taken without permission.

Kimunya said that minister Orengo blew the whistle because he (Kimunya) blocked his bribe demands. Orengo replied that “I have fought for freedom and equality in this country long before Kimunya was in the political radar”. Kimunya also tried to include Prime Minister Raila Odinga but again, Raila is on record having demanded the files and explanation on how the hotel was sold, just days after becoming the country’s Prime Minister.

With Kimunya’s resignation, the ball will keep rolling on rolling and Kenya maybe moving towards containing ethnic corruption but before any significant progress can be achieved, Kimunya’s resignation may just be the beginning of a clean-up operation.