Kenyan Finance Minister Amos Kimunya maintained Wednesday that he was clean over the controversial sale of a luxury hotel located in central Nairobi.
Defending himself minutes before parliament passed a vote of no confidence on him over his handling of the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, Kimunya said the Attorney General Amos Wako was fully briefed on the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel despite his denials.
"My hands are totally clean on this transaction," Kimunya told parliament before the vote which was passed unanimously by lawmakers.
Kimunya denied that the sale of the hotel had been conducted in secret and noted that the Central Bank Governor Njuguna Ndung'u had briefed the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, on the matter.
He also denied previous claims by Wako that he was kept in the dark. Kimunya told Parliament that he was aware that lawyers acting for the Libyan firm that bought the hotel met Wako six times.
Both Odinga and Wako were not in parliament. Majority of the legislators, who contributed to the motion, including Kimunya's colleagues in the Party of National Unity (PNU), criticized the finance minister's handling of his docket.
Kimunya's sole defender was Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka who had wanted debate on the motion to be adjourned until Thursday to allow for a parallel probe by prime minister to conclude.
Political analysts said that with the vote of no confidence having sailed through, Kimunya is required to resign from office, and if he fails, President Mwai Kibaki has little choice but to act to remove him from office.
"For corruption to stop at the Treasury, Kimunya must go and for us to protect the integrity of this parliament, Kimunya must go," said Bonny Khalwale, the mover of the motion.
"Kimunya is today the prince of impunity. The minister has his 10 fingerprints on corruption in this country."
Kimunya stands accused that he ignored laid down procedures fordisposal of public assets and companies, and for allegedly misleading Parliament that should the Government decide to sell the hotel it would be done in accordance with the law.
Kimunya has been under intense pressure to resign over the controversial sale to a Libyan firm of the Grand Regency Hotel regarded as a symbol of the rampant corruption of the Daniel arap Moi era.
After months of denials, Kimunya was forced to admit last week that the luxury hotel had been sold for 2.9 billion shillings (about 45 million US dollars) -- a price that critics say is less than half the market value.
However, Lands minister, Orengo insisted on Monday that the hotel was sold to a Kenyan-registered firm, Libyan Arab African Investment Company Kenya Limited, and not to the Libyan government, for 1.85 billion shillings.
The deal has caused outrage in Kenya, and raised the spectre of another high-level corruption scandal.
Kimunya is one of President Kibaki's staunchest allies, and was a key defender of the president during the post-election crisis.
The deal has been condemned by leaders from the president's coalition, to which Kimunya belongs, as well as the Orange Democratic Movement, the party of Prime Minister Odinga who challenged President Kibaki in last year's disputed elections before joining a unity government.
Opposition ministers in the coalition government have demanded that Kimunya and the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Njugana Ndung'u, another Kibaki appointee, who the ministers say was involved in selling the hotel, immediately step aside to allow for an investigation.
Source:Xinhua
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