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Kenya police summon finance minister over dams scandal
Kenya's Cabinet Secretary of National Treasury (Finance Minister) Henry Rotich carries a briefcase containing the Government Budget for the 2013/14 fiscal year inside the parliament building in Nairobi, June 13, 2013. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Noor Khamis
05/03/2019
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police have summoned Finance Minister Henry Rotich for questioning for a second time over a multi-million dollar scandal involving advance payments for two dam projects, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said.
The DCI said last week it was investigating what it described as fraudulent construction of the two dams valued at 63 billion shillings. Some payments had already been made despite the dams not being built, it said.
Rotich was not immediately available for comment, but in a statement published by local media on Sunday, he said that up to 19.8 billion shillings ($198 million) had been paid in advance to various firms for the Arror and Kimwarer dams.
He said the payments had been made in accordance with the law.
"He must answer several questions," George Kinoti, the head of the DCI, told Reuters in a text message late on Monday.
Rotich arrived at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters in Nairobi at around 6 am on Tuesday, a police officer posted outside told Reuters.
(Reporting by Humphrey Malalo, Hereward Holland and Maggie Fick; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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