Head of anti-corruption squad appointed

The Kenyan government on Thursday appointed the head of the police department's new anti-corruption squad, the 'Daily Nation' reported. Deputy Police Commissioner Swaleh Slim, formerly a senior investigator at the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA), was given the job of running the new unit charged with investigating claims of corruption in government, the police and other public institutions, the newspaper said. A series of special courts are also to be set up to deal with corruption cases, and provincial liaison offices are also planned.

Slim was in charge of 139 high-profile corruption cases at KACA before the body was disbanded. The new anti-corruption unit will be based at Integrity Centre, Nairobi, the building which originally housed KACA, the 'Daily Nation' said on Friday.

KACA was ruled unconstitutional by the Kenyan High Court in January, on the basis that it undermined the powers of the attorney general and the police commissioner. Although the International Monetary Fund had tied the release of an estimated US $317 million of funding to the re-establishment of KACA, Kenya's MPs in August voted down a contentious constitutional amendment bill aimed at paving the way for anti-corruption measures and the reinstatement of the authority. President Daniel arap Moi announced on 15 August, the day after MPs rejected the bill, that the new police anti-corruption squad would be set up, and would deal with the 139 cases previously being investigated by KACA.