A Kenyan county governor and three other officials were charged with conspiracy to defraud the government and abuse of office on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, Sospeter Ojaamong, the governor of Busia County in western Kenya, and the three others all pleaded not guilty as they appeared in front of anti-corruption Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti.
Ojaamong was arrested earlier on Wednesday, part of a crackdown that has seen dozens of raids and investigations in the past two months.
A day earlier, he KTN News television on Tuesday he was “clean as cotton, or snow”.
The director of public prosecutions, Noordin Haji, said on Tuesday that Ojaamong, eight other officials and a company would be prosecuted over the theft of millions of Kenyan shillings of public funds.
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He said the charges against Ojaamong centred on procurement practices linked to a solid waste management system in Busia, which borders Uganda.
Five others to be charged are still at large.
Kenyan media have reported on more than a dozen graft scandals involving state agencies and officials since President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected last year. He has promised a renewed crackdown on graft.