Kenya's finance minister arrested for fraud, corruption Kenya's criminal investigation chief says the country's finance minister has been arrested for fraud and corruption charges over the construction of two dams in western Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's criminal investigation chief says the country's finance minister has been arrested on charges of fraud and corruption over the awarding of contracts to construct two dams in western Kenya.

George Kinoti said Monday that Finance Minister Henry Rotich was recording statements at the Criminal Investigation headquarters Monday before being charged in court.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji ordered Rotich and 27 other officials charged for the allegedly fraudulent contracts and payments to Italian firm CMC di Ravenna. Haji said many procurement procedures stipulated by the law for such projects were ignored and the law was circumvented to ensure that CMC di Ravenna got the contracts even though it was facing liquidation in Italy. Haji said the cost of building the two dams was inflated by about $164.5million.