British High Commissioner attacks Kenyan corruption

By Alex Singleton | 13 February 2005

According to today's Sunday Times (London), the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Sir Edward Clay, has provoked a row with the Kenyan government after attacking the "massive looting" of public funds in Kenya. The country's foreign minister, Chiracu Ali Mwakwere, rejected the allegations, saying: Sir Edward "was talking nonsense," and suggesting that Sir Edward had drunk too much.

Sir Edward said that Kenyan corruption "amounted to vomit, not just on the shoes on donors but also all over the shoes of Kenyans... and the feet of those who cannot afford shoes." The Sunday Times says he handed authorities a dossier of 20 dubious contracts and allegedly crooked procurement ventures. The paper says that in the last three years, it has been estimated that nearly a fifth of the Kenyan government's budget has been lost to corruption.