Finance minister resigns amid graft scandal

Kenyan finance minister David Mwiraria has resigned following claims of corruption involving high-ranking government officials but maintained that allegations against him are false. "In order that my name be cleared and to protect the integrity of the president, the government and our country, Kenya, I hereby voluntarily step aside," Mwiraria said on Wednesday. Claims of corruption involving senior government officials have rattled President Mwai Kibaki's administration, which was elected three years ago on an anti-graft platform. John Githongo, who resigned in February 2005 as permanent secretary in charge of governance and ethics, has named ministers who he claimed were involved in the so-called "Anglo-Leasing" scam in a 31-page report. The scandal was over plans to print passports with improved security features and build a modern forensic laboratory for the police. The scam, according to Githongo, was intended to raise money for presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007, in which Kibaki may seek another mandate. Githongo implicated several ministers, including Vice-President Moody Awori, finance minister David Mwiraria, then-justice minister Kiraitu Murungi and then-internal security minister Chris Murungaru. Murungaru has since been dropped from the cabinet, while Murungi is now energy minister. All the ministers have denied the allegations against them, with Murungi branding them "malicious". "I can confirm that His Excellency the President has accepted my letter," Mwiraria told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. He called for expeditious investigations into the claims.