Kenya kicks out top anti-corruption officials

NAIROBI: Kenya's top anti-corruption officials were suspended Thursday following a bitter stand-off with parliament and after they alleged widespread graft in the east African nation.
President Uhuru Kenyatta removed the chairman and deputy chairwoman of Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) after MPs voted to sanction the pair, accusing them of incompetence and abuse of office.
The crisis in the fight against graft comes less than a month after dozens of top Kenyan politicians and civil servants were named in an EACC report that gave a damning indictment of the scale of corruption in the country.
A total of 175 people were named in the EACC report, including five cabinet ministers, 13 governors and a host of civil servants, MPs and members of the judiciary.
President Kenyatta had also ordered those named in the report to step aside while they are under investigation.
Presidential spokesman Manoah Esipisu said that even though the EACC bosses had now also been suspended, he insisted that this "in no way hinders the work" of the anti-corruption body. – AFP