Campaigners and critics have condemned the reappointment of the head of Kenya's anti-corruption agency by President Mwai Kibaki. "Retired Justice Aaron Ringera has failed to fight corruption in this country," lawyer and former MP Paul Muite told the BBC's Network Africa.
The party of Prime Minister Raila Odinga has also rejected the move. Mr Kibaki won elections in 2002 promising to tackle corruption but critics say little has changed. No senior officials have been convicted of corruption. Mr Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) said the prime minister had not been consulted.
Mr Muite said Mr Ringera's reappointment for a second five-year term was illegal, as parliament was supposed to consider a shortlist of candidates before an appointment was made. Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) advisory board chairman Okong'o Omogeni told the BBC that the board should have been consulted.
"We are dismayed that the president has made this appointment in total contravention of the law. "As a board we want to seek intervention from the national assembly to whom we are accountable." The spokesman for President Kibaki's Party of National Unity said he accepted that the procedure was wrong but that he had not problems with Mr Ringera.
The KACC head is Kenya's best paid civil servant, earning 2.5m shillings ($34,000; �21,000) a month - more than the president. Mr Ringera's spokesman has said he would not comment at the moment. He has previously defended the lack of convictions by saying he does not have the powers to prosecute those accused of corruption.
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