Uhuru replaces Rotich, Thugge at Treasury
President Uhuru Kenyatta has replaced corruption suspects Henry Rotich and Dr Kamau Thugge as Treasury Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary respectively.
Amb. Ukur Yatani the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection, assumes, in acting capacity the CS National Treasury and Planning, replacing Mr Rotich.
Dr Julius Monzi Muia is appointed as the Principal Secretary for the National Treasury, replacing Dr Thugge.
Rotich together with Dr Thugge are among 26 government officials who have been implicated in the Kimwarer and Arror Dams scandal.
Before joining President Kenyatta’s cabinet, Mr Yatani served as the first governor of Marsabit County from 2013 to 2017.
DAMS SCANDAL
Previously, he was the Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna from 2009 to 2012 after serving as the North Horr MP in 2006.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology from Egerton University and Master of Public Administration and Public Policy from New York University.
Rotich was on Tuesday charged along 27 other government officials for their involvement in the Kimwarer and Arror dams scandal.
Others who the president has appointed are Mr Torome Saitoti as the Principal Secretary for the State Department of Planning and Maj Gen (Rtd) Gordon Kihalangwa as the Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Defence.
On Monday the The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji ordered for the arrested of the 28 individual after it emerged that over 19 billion of Taxpayers money cannot be accounted for due to ghost projects.
CHARGED IN COURT
“Consequently, I have today directed the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to effect the arrest and immediate arraignment before court of the accused persons named,” Haji said in a media briefing on Monday.
The government officials are said to have bent the rules, and misled the public about the state of national finances, in order to award the tender to the bankrupt Italian firm CMC Di Ravenna.
Later on Monday Haji wrote to the Head of Public Service, Joseph Kinyua, ordering the suspension of all those government officials facing prosecution over the multi-billion-shilling dams scandal.
In making the appointments, the president has kept his word to have all government officers ceasing to hold office once they are charged in court.
“As I have I said and done before, I once again undertake that anyone whose case goes before court will be removed from government will thereafter have to answer their case before a court of law,” President Kenyatta said during the State of the Nation address in April.