NAIROBI - A Kenyan politician dropped from President Mwai Kibaki's cabinet and barred from entering Britain or the United States is suing a man at the heart of corruption allegations against him.
The defamation case launched this week by ex-minister Chris Murungaru against graft whistle-blower John Githongo -- who now lives in England -- is the latest twist in a slew of corruption sagas that have engulfed east Africa's most developed nation.
Once a right-hand man of Kibaki in a government that came to power in 2002 vowing to end rampant corruption, Murungaru is seeking to clear his name after a report by Githongo linked him to a multi-million graft scandal called Anglo Leasing.
"He (Githongo) imagined all these things," Murungaru's lawyer Kioko Kilukumi told Reuters on Wednesday. "It's about inferences drawn from conversations with other people."
Kilukumi lodged the suit at Nairobi's High Court on Tuesday.
Githongo, who sought exile in Britain after quitting as Kenya's first anti-graft presidential adviser in early 2005, mentions Murungaru frequently in a widely-publicised dossier on the Anglo Leasing scandal.
Under the scam, which ran under the government of Kibaki and his predecessor Daniel arap Moi, state contracts worth some $200 million went to a phantom company.
"Fertile Imagination"
Murungaru was one of the first big casualties of an avalanche of accusations over Anglo Leasing, losing his job as transport minister late last year and being declared undesirable by both London and Washington.
Since then, three other ministers have stepped down, the central bank head has been suspended, and a clutch of ex-senior officials have gone to court over Anglo Leasing and other cases.
Kibaki's government was seen as a new start for Kenya after 24 years of strongman rule under Moi, but its failure to end graft has disappointed Western donors and infuriated Kenyans.
The government says the recent flurry of investigations and cases shows it is serious in tackling graft, but critics say it only acted under pressure and no senior figure has been jailed.
In his suit against Githongo, Murungaru alleges that the claims against him in the dossier "consist of a pack of falsehoods, rumours, gossip, inconclusive inferences, suspicion, hearsay (that) are the product of the defendant's fertile, creative and artistic imagination."
Speaking by telephone from Oxford, where he is an associate member at the university's St. Antony's College, Githongo said he could not comment until he had seen details of the case.
"I am waiting for the documents," he told Reuters.
His dossier, sent to Kibaki, was based in part on taped recordings of meetings with government ministers.
Murungaru, in a further effort to clear his name, is also suing the British government in a case his lawyers said was due to be heard at London's High Court on May 9.
Kenya's former colonial ruler barred him from Britain in mid-2005 due to his "character, conduct and associations".
"Other than newspaper cuttings, they have not produced any evidence to link Dr. Murungaru to corruption," said Paul Muite, another lawyer for Murungaru flying to London for the case.
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