In a development that is in all ways unusual for Kenya's longest serving Attorney General,Mr Amos Wako has directed the arrest and prosecution of a high-profile politician in Kenya's coalition government.
Mr wako has never recommended a prosecution of government officials at all during his time despite cases forwarded to him for approval.
But now Wako,who completes his tenure as stipulated in Kenya's new constitution in the course of the year, has given Kenya's anti- corruption body-Kacc -the green light to charge Mr Henry Kosgey for abuse of office which allegedly happened in his tenure as industrialization minister,taking the number of cases against the minister to two.
The case involves the importation of vehicles under Kosgey's authority , which the attorney general claims did not follow the law hence corruption.
Confirming the corruption case recently,Kenya's anti- corruption body director prof. ,PLO Lumumba said Kosgey was indeed in the number government officials with pending prosecutions waiting for the attorney general's approval for hearing in court.
The minister was also mentioned in connection with the county's post-election skirmishes that left over 1000 people dead in its wake by international court prosecutor Luis Moreno -Ocampo.According to Ocampo who has already made the names public, the minister is among the key suspected perpetrators of the 2008 electoral mayhem.
However,Kosgey,who has served consistently as member of parliament since 1979, has dismissed both of the charges leveled against him saying the first has no truth, and that he did nothing wrong in the latter except exercising his official discretion.
The ICC has promised to prosecute six key suspects in two years on account of the magnitude of their responsibility in the violence,a reality that late last year sparked discontent in parliament resulting in Mps passing a bill to withdraw Kenya from the Rome Statute which makes the country party to the ICC.But even then the president has not signed the bill into law.
If prosecuted,Mr Kosgey will become the first person to be taken to court on Wako's consent in his(Wako's) lengthy period as the country's second attorney general.
Mr Wako faced backlash two years ago when he acquitted a British baron who had allegedly shot an African mason dead citing lack of sufficient evidence.
To many,this latest action is new for Wako.Is Wako out to clear his legacy?
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