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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's president Saturday suspended four cabinet secretaries and 16 other senior officials to facilitate investigations into allegations of corruption.
The officers have been named in a confidential report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, according to a statement read by President Uhuru Kenyatta's spokesman Manoah Esipisu.
"No one would stand between Kenyans and what is right in the fight against corruption, " Esipisu said, quoting Kenyatta.
The suspensions have been met with skepticism by members of the public as senior officials suspended for various reasons in previous governments have never been convicted and some returned to their positions before investigations were complete.
High-ranking officials are rarely convicted in Kenya, instead they make their way back to power, said anti-corruption activist Boniface Mwangi.
"The list released is missing many known corrupt officials and unless some of the suspended ministers are prosecuted and convictions are made. I think he is just playing politics. We need the police and the courts to work without presidential sideshows," Mwangi said.
President Kenyatta has been under public pressure to act after some reviews of his 2-year-old regime by opposition and economic experts published in local media claimed his administration is more corrupt than previous governments.
The public has also been angered by lawmakers, who have a responsibility to probe government excesses but who accuse each other of taking bribes from officials to alter their investigation reports.
Some legislators who are members of the Public Accounts Committee accuse each other of taking bribes to turn a blind eye to questionable expenditure in the Interior Ministry which is under the president's office.
Members of Agriculture Committee also accuse each other of taking bribes to alter a report of the investigation of who is to blame for the near collapse of Kenya's largest sugar company, which has affected the livelihood of thousands of farmers. President Kenyatta acknowledged in state of nation address Thursday that corruption is one biggest obstacles in developing the country.
Transparency International, in its 2014 corruption perception index, ranked Kenya close to the bottom — 145 out of 175 countries.
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