NAIROBI: Mr Daniel arap Moi, the former Kenyan leader whose tenure was marred by the alleged theft of billions of dollars of public money, looks likely to escape prosecution over the issue, the country's anti-corruption chief said yesterday.
Mr Moi will be spared investigation as a gesture of respect after he handed over power peacefully when the opposition won a landslide victory in elections last year.
"I agree that a lot of evil things happened under his leadership, but a deliberate choice, which we are willing to defend, has been made not to target President Moi," Mr John Githongo, the permanent secretary for governance and ethics, told the BBC.
The exoneration will spare Mr Moi from answering for the excesses of the kleptocracy that emerged under his 24-year rule.
"We regard the former president as a special democratic case for Kenya, and therefore for Africa, and he will not be subject to the kind of scrutiny given to others," he said.
However, Mr Githongo said, this deference would not extend to others in his government: "Everyone else is fair game." Mr Moi (79), has said he is not guilty of corruption. In June, he promised to co-operate fully with investigators and said he was not seeking an amnesty from the new government.
The biggest corruption scandal in Kenya is the Goldenberg affair, in which officials of the Moi regime are alleged to have generated state subsidies for gold and diamond exports that never took place.
Investigators believe that between $3 billion and $4 billion was stolen from the taxpayer through the fictitious deals - enough to pay for primary schooling for every Kenyan child for 10 years.
Mr Moi's sons and politicians close to him have been named by witnesses at the Goldenberg inquiry as recipients of money.
The new Kenyan government, led by President Mwai Kibaki, has promised to end corruption and has rushed through legislation to form an anti-corruption commission, as well as suspending half the country's most senior judges for allegedly taking bribes. - (Guardian Service)