Kenyan opposition lawmakers Tuesday demanded more resignations of ministers serving in President Mwai Kibaki's besieged government after holding a closed- door informal parliamentary session to press for the recall of parliamentary sittings.

"We demand the following resignations: Vice President Moody Awori, Justice Minister Martha Karua, Attorney General Amos Wako, Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission Aaron Ringera to pave way for investigations," the MPs said in a statement.

The statement was read by Omingo Magara, who was the chairman of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) which investigated the origin of the 100 million U.S. dollars Anglo Leasing finance scandal, which forced Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi out of office.

The MPs did not specify why they wanted the anti-graft chief Ringera to resign, although he has been targeted over allegations that he received an earlier dossier linking top officials in a cover-up but did not take any steps.

The MPS also called for the sacking of Lands Minister Amos Kimunya, Trade and Industry Minister Mukhisa Kituyi, Special Advisor Stanley Murage and Civil Service Head Francis Muthaura.

Kiraitu, who served as Justice Minister before being moved to the Energy portfolio, denied any involvement in the multi-million- dollar Anglo Leasing finance scandal, where the government contracted a bogus British firm to build forensic laboratories.

The firm, Anglo Leasing is owned by a Kenyan businessman who claimed that he had an office in Liverpool, but which was later discovered to be non-existent. The firm secured the contracts to build the forensic laboratories and supply tamper-proof passports.

President Mwai Kibaki announced on Monday in a televised speech that he had received the resignations of Murungi and Education Minister George Saitoti, who was the vice president and finance minister when the country lost 600 million dollars in a separate deal.

The Goldenberg scandal in which Saitoti was accused of approving an illegal ex-gratia payments to politically-well connected firms through 15 other fringe banks set up for the same reason in the early 1990s, has come into the public limelight again.

Murungi is the third minister to lose his portfolio in the Anglo Leasing wave after former Internal Security Minister Chris Murungaru was sacked from the cabinet and Finance Minister David Mwiraria also resigned under public pressure.

Source: Xinhua