TANZANIA MOURNS 71 KILLED IN FUEL TANKER BLAST

By Our Reporter, Morogoro

Tanzania was in mourning Sunday, preparing to bury 71 people who died when a crashed fuel tanker exploded as crowds rushed to siphon off leaking petrol.

President John Magufuli, declared a period of mourning through Monday following the deadly blast near the town of Morogoro, west of Dar es Salaam.

He is represented at the funerals by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, an official statement said.

"We're currently mourning the loss of 71 people, the last of whom died while being transferred by helicopter to the national hospital in Dar es Salaam," Majaliwa told residents in comments broadcast on television.

The number of injured stood at 59, he said.

The burials will start Sunday afternoon, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jenista Mhagama announced during the morning after relatives identified the dead.

"The preparations for the burials have been completed. Individual graves have been dug and the coffins are ready," Mhagama said, adding that experts would be available to offer psychological counselling to the victims' relatives.

DNA tests is carried out on bodies that were no longer recognisable, Mhagama said, adding that families could take the remains of their loved ones and organise their own burials if they preferred.

In the latest in a series of similar disasters in Africa, 46 seriously hurt patients had been taken to hospital in Dar es Salaam three of them died shortly after reaching the hospital while remaining were being treated in Morogoro, 125 miles west of the economic capital of Tanzania.

Footage from the scene showed the truck engulfed in flames and huge clouds of black smoke, with charred bodies. The burnt-out remains of motorcycle taxis lie scattered on the ground among scorched trees.

A video posted on social media showed dozens of people carrying yellow jerricans around the truck before explosion.

"We arrived at the scene with two neighbours just after the truck was overturned. While some good Samaritans were trying to get the driver and the other two people out of the truck, others were jostling each other, equipped with jerrycans, to collect petrol," eye witness, January Michael said.

President Magufuli visiting injured patients at the Dar es Salaam, Muhimbili hospital

"At the same time, someone was trying to pull the battery out of the vehicle. We warned that the truck could explode at any moment but no one wanted to listen, so we went on our way, but we had barely turned on our heels when we heard the explosion."

President Magufuli called for people to stop the dangerous practice of stealing fuel in such a way, a common event in many poor parts of Africa.

He issued a statement saying he was "very shocked" by the looting of fuel from damaged vehicles.

"There are vehicles that carry dangerous fuel oil, as in this case in Morogoro, there are others that carry toxic chemicals or explosives, let's stop this practice, please," Magufuli said.

Last month, 45 people were killed and more than 100 injured in central Nigeria when a petrol tanker crashed and then exploded as people tried to take the fuel.

Among the deadliest such disasters, 292 people lost their lives in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2010, and in September 2015 at least 203 people died the South Sudan town of Maridi.

FUEL TANKER BLAST KILLS 60 IN TANZANIA

By Our Correspondent, Morogoro TANZANIA

A fuel tanker carrying a consignment of petrol exploded in Tanzania on Saturday, killing 60 people and injuring 65, which had crashed, state broadcaster TBC said.

The explosion occurred around 200 km west of the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

“We have been saddened by reports of an accident involving a fuel truck in Morogoro, which caught fire and burned several people,” government spokesman, Hassan Abbasi, said on Twitter.

Few minutes before the explosion
Morogoro residents were busy
collecting flowing fuel

Majority of the victims were motorcyclists who rushed to the scene to collect the oil gushing onto the road, according to eye witnesses. 

Reports suggest a cigarette or battery spark was to blame for the deadly fire.

Fire fighters from Tanzania People’s Defense Force (TPDF) and Fire Brigade have been deployed for rescue mission.

The bodies have been taken to Morogoro Regional Hospital.

“This has never happened in Morogoro town,” said Dr Steven Kwebwe, the Morogoro Regional Commissioner who arrived at the accident scene later.

“The lorry overturned and spilled fuel over 100 metres along the road,’’ added Dr Kebwe.

HIROSHIMA: THE US NUCLEAR ATTACK THAT CHANGED HISTORY

Tokyo, JAPAN

Japan has marked 74 years since a US atomic bomb attack that razed the city of Hiroshima to the ground at the end of World War II.

Hiroshima after atomic bomb attack in 1945

Around 50,000 people, including representatives from around the world, attended on Tuesday a ceremony held in the Peace Memorial Park near ground zero to honour the memory of the victims of the world's first nuclear bomb attack.

In a speech, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on the international community to work towards a world without atomic weapons.

Below we take a look at the events that shaped the course of history.

On August 6, 1945, at about 8:15am Japanese time, the US aircraft Enola Gay dropped an untested uranium-235 gun-assembly bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" over Hiroshima. 

The devastation was unlike anything in the history of warfare, ushering in the era of weapons of mass destruction.

Hiroshima was immediately flattened. The resulting explosion killed 70,000 people instantly; by December 1945, the death toll had risen to some 140,000.

The radius of total destruction was reportedly 1.6 kilometer.

"The impact of the bomb was so terrific that practically all living things - human and animal - were literally seared to death by the tremendous heat and pressure set up by the blast," Tokyo radio said in the aftermath of the explosion, according to a report by The Guardian in August 1945.

"All the dead and injured were burned beyond recognition. Those outdoors were burned to death, while those indoors were killed by the indescribable pressure and heat."

But the damage did not end there. The radiation released from the explosion caused further suffering.

Thousands more died from their injuries, radiation sickness and cancer in the years that followed, bringing the toll closer to 200,000, according to the Department of Energy's history of the Manhattan Project. 

The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki during World War II 

Japan was a fierce enemy of the US and its allies, Britain, China and the Soviet Union during World War II. 

By 1945, the allies had turned the tide of the war and pushed the Japanese forces back from many locations.

The Japanese had publicly stated their intent to fight to the bitter end, and were using tactics such as kamikaze attacks, in which pilots would suicide dive against US warships. 

In July 1945, US President Harry Truman and allies demanded the "immediate and unconditional" surrender of Japan, but Japan did not issue a clear response.

Shortly after, the US attacked Hiroshima, which was seen as a strategically sound target due to weather conditions, aircraft range, military impact and morale impact upon the enemy.

"What has been done is the greatest achievement of organised science in history. It was done under high pressure and without failure," Truman said 16 hours after the atomic bomb was dropped. 

"We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake; we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war."

Truman said if Japan's leaders "do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this Earth".

He added: "Behind this air attack will follow sea and land forces in such numbers and power as they have not yet seen and with the fighting skill of which they are already well aware." 

After the bomb obliterated Hiroshima, the Japanese did not surrender.

Three days later, the US launched another mission to bomb Kokura, however, the citywas obscured by clouds. The city of Nagasaki was chosen as a target instead. "Fat Man" was dropped over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, instantly killing at least 40,000 people.

The British pilot Leonard Cheshire, who was involved in the mission to bomb Nagasaki, later recalled the cloud caused by the atomic blast: "Obscene in its greedy clawing at the earth, swelling as if with its regurgitation of all the life that it had consumed."

The bombings were as questionable back then as they are today. Six out of seven five-star US generals and admirals at the time felt there was no need to drop the bomb because Japanese surrender was imminent.

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender, and on September 2, the surrender was formally signed, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. 

The power of the atomic bomb would usher a change in geopolitics that still reverberates to this day, with several countries currently vying to acquire this technology. 

Former California Governor Jerry Brown, left,
and former US Secretary of Defence William Perry
 unveil the Doomsday Clock during on January 24, 2019.
This year the Doomsday Clock remains unchanged and is
set at two minutes to midnight

In 1947, the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project created the Doomsday Clock, which represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, with midnight symbolizing the destruction of civilization as we know it.

Last year, the clock was adjusted to two minutes to midnight, the closest it has been to doomsday.

In 2019, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists maintained the "two minutes to midnight" time, citing continuing climate change, US and Russian nuclear modernization efforts; information warfare threats and other dangers from "disruptive technologies" such as artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and cyber-warfare. - Aljazeera

‘HONG KONG FACING BIGGEST CRISIS SINCE 1997’ – CHINESE GOVERNMENT

HONG KONG

Hong Kong is facing its worst crisis since it returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, the head of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office said on Wednesday, as more protests were set to rock the Asian financial hub.

A Chinese official says Hong Kong is facing its biggest crisis since 1997 following recent protests.

The city has faced months of sometimes violent protests that began with opposition to a now-suspended extradition law and which have evolved into a direct challenge to the government of embattled leader Carrie Lam.

“Hong Kong’s crisis ... has continued for 60 days, and is getting worse and worse,” Zhang Xiaoming, one of the most senior Chinese officials overseeing Hong Kong affairs, said during a meeting in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

“Violent activities are intensifying and the impact on society is spreading wider. It can be said that Hong Kong is now facing the most severe situation since its handover,” he said.

Zhang was holding a forum that included Hong Kong delegates to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress and China’s main consultative body, the CPPCC, to discuss the political crisis in the territory. No opposition democratic figures or protest representatives attended.

The protests, during which millions of people have taken to the streets, began in opposition to an extradition law that would have allowed suspects to be tried in mainland courts controlled by the Communist Party.

The protests, fueled by many residents’ fears of eroding freedoms under the tightening Communist Party control, now pose the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he took power in 2012.

Hong Kong lawyers dressed in black are set to march in silence later on Wednesday to call on the government to safeguard the independence of the city’s justice department.

Protesters also plan to surround Hong Kong’s Revenue Tower on Wednesday. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Sham Shui Po, one of the city’s poorest districts, late on Tuesday.

The city’s lawyers fear the justice department’s prosecutions of arrested protesters are taking on an increasingly political slant after 44 protesters were charged with rioting, an offense that carries a 10-year jail term.

A group of unidentified government prosecutors published an open letter last week accusing Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng of putting politics above legal principles.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, states that the city’s Department of Justice “shall control criminal prosecutions, free from any interference”.

Hong Kong was guaranteed freedoms not granted in mainland China, including an independent judiciary, under a “one country, two systems” formula when Britain handed it back to China in 1997. However, many residents see the extradition bill as part of a relentless march towards mainland control.

Protesters are demanding a complete withdrawal of the bill, an independent inquiry into the crisis, an investigation into what they say is excessive use of force by police, and for Lam to step down.

The movement has garnered support from broad swaths of society, with teachers, rights groups, financial industry workers and even civil servants taking to the streets.

In China’s sharpest rebuke yet of the protesters, the government warned them on Tuesday not to “play with fire” and called on Hong Kong citizens to protect their homeland.

The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid published by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, showed a video on its official Twitter feed of thousands of police officers taking part in an anti-riot training drill in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

The video showed officers in helmets and shields clashing with people in black shirts and yellow construction hats, similar to the unofficial uniform of protesters in Hong Kong.

Police have arrested more than 500 people in the protests so far and fired nearly 2,000 rounds of tear gas.

Police again fired tear gas in Sham Shui Po late on Tuesday.

Protesters have also demanded the release of Keith Fong, a student union leader from Baptist University, who was arrested on Tuesday night after being caught buying laser pointers by several plain-clothes police.

Police said in a statement a man was found in possession of offensive weapons. Protesters have often aimed pointers, which are widely available in shops, at police during recent clashes. -  Reuters

UGANDAN LEGISLATURE CHARGED FOR "ANNOYING" PRESIDENT MUSEVENI

By Our Correspondent, Gulu UGANDA

The State on Tuesday slapped five more criminal charges against Kyadondo East Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, alongside 36 other suspects in connection with the alleged stoning of President Museveni’s car in Arua Municipality last year.

Kyadondo East Member of Parliament (MP) Robert Kyagulanyi

Initially the 37 suspects were facing charges of treason and acts to alarm, annoy or ridicule the President.

The new charges include incitement to violence, disobedience of lawful orders, going armed in certain places, failure to prevent obstruction of traffic, confusion or disorder during a public meeting and failure to give right of way.

"He was charged with annoying the president" in relation to the same case, his lawyer Asuman Basalirwa told this reporter.

All the suspects denied the fresh charges before Grade One Magistrate, Isaac Imran Kintu who extended their bail until further notice.

The court also committed them to the High Court.  This means that they will have to wait on the registrar of the Gulu High Court to list their case file for hearing.

Other suspects include MPs Francis Zaake (Mityana Municipality), Paul Mwiru (Jinja Municipality East), Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality), and Michael Mabike and John Mary Ssebuwufu.

Bobi Wine, who entered parliament in 2017, has emerged as a leading critic of Museveni -- who has been in power for over three decades -- and has faced multiple detentions while authorities have frustrated his efforts to perform.

President Yoweri Museveni

He announced last month that he would take on Museveni in 2021 national elections.

"This government of President Museveni is in panic mode. At first it was treason and now it is annoying President Museveni. Who on earth can't be annoyed?" Bobi Wine said.

"It is a ridiculous charge and am ready to challenge it in court," he said.

The new accusation against Wine comes just days after prominent activist Stella Nyanzi was sentenced to 18 months in prison over her vulgar posts on social media against Museveni -- which she sees as a way to get her message across.

Bobi Wine is still facing charges in another court, for staging a protest against a law that imposed a tax on mobile money transactions and use of social media in 2018. – Daily Monitor

TANZANIAN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SLAPPED WITH TAX EVASION CASE

By Our Correspondent, Dar es Salaam TANZANIA

A Tanzanian investigative journalist, Erick Kabendera, has appeared in a Dar es Salaam court charged with organised crime and money laundering.

Tanzanian investigative journalist, Erick Kabendera (right), in a Dar es Salaam court

The journalist who was arrested by plainclothes policemen last week, appeared in court charged with leading organised crime, failure to pay tax amounting to 173 million Tanzanian shillings ($75,000) and money laundering of the same amount. Press freedom advocates have called the charges “clearly retaliatory”.

The charge sheet said he “knowingly furnished assistance in the conduct of affairs of a criminal racket, with intent either to reap profit or other benefit”.

Kabendera, whose work has appeared in the international newspapers like the Guardian and many other publications, has recently published stories about political infighting and an alleged plot to stop the re-election of the Tanzanian president, John Magufuli, who has been criticised for a sharp increase in repression since he took power in 2015.

Kabendera seemed calm as he heard the charges in Kisutu resident magistrate’s court in the former Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, after being held for a week by police with very limited access to his family and lawyers.

This is against Tanzania’s constitution: a person has to be charged in court after being detained for 24 hours, or the police must get leave from a magistrate to keep him for longer.

Immediately after the hearing he was put into a police van and driven to the city’s Segerea maximum security prison.

Other accusations have been levelled at Kabendera in the last week. The day after his arrest a police spokesman said they were working with immigration officials to “clarify his citizenship”. He was then charged with sedition under cybercrime laws, controversial legislation that has been used by the president to jail his critics. Those charges were then also dropped.

Kabendera’s lawyers had been preparing for a bail application on Monday, but the crimes he was charged with are not bailable offences. He was not permitted to enter a plea because, according to the court’s magistrate, Agostino Rwezile, the court had no jurisdiction to hear his case.

The case was referred to the division of corruption and economic crimes of Tanzania’s high court and he will be held in Segerea until the next court date on 19 August 2019.

“Our application was meant to grant the accused an opportunity to be heard in court or be granted bail but since he has been brought to court, we are asking that the charges be dropped,’’ said Kabendera’s lawyer, Jebra Kambole. Otherwise, he said, he had no objections. “We only ask the prosecution to speed up their investigation,” he said.

Press freedom campaigners called on prosecutors to drop the charges straight away and free him unconditionally.

“Initially police claimed to be questioning Erick Kabendera on his citizenship. Today they have brought to court drastically different, and clearly retaliatory, charges,” said Muthoki Mumo of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “The continued detention of this freelance journalist is an attempt to muzzle a critical voice and his case also has the potential to intimidate others in Tanzania’s media community into silence.”

The British high commissioner has spoken to Tanzanian officials about the case, and Kabendera’s supporters promised to fight for his freedom.

“We know you didn’t organise those crimes. We know you don’t evade tax,” Zitto Kabwe, an opposition politician, posted on his Instagram page. “It’s your journalism, your stance, your professionalism. We, your friends, will fight for your rights and we will win. You will be free.”

KENYAN ARRIVED HOME TO FIND HIS 'FUNERAL' UNDERWAY

Kennedy Olwa who returned home when his relatives
were about to bury a body thought to be his at Godmiaha
village in Rachuonyo East, Homa Bay County,
on August 4, 2019

By George Odiwuor, Homa Bay KENYA

Drama unfolded in Godmiaha village, Rachuonyo East in Homa Bay County in Kenya when a 38-year-old man who was believed to have died a month ago resurfaced as “his funeral” was underway.

Mr Kennedy Olwa, who is reported to have disappeared from home for almost 20 years and was presumed dead, appeared to mourners who had attended his “funeral” at his parents’ home.

The man is said to have gone to Mbita Town and became a fisherman after he left home.

He later relocated to Alum beach along Lake Victoria in Rachuonyo North Sub-County.

According to Ramba Location Chief Joseph Ndege, the family of Mr Olwa was informed that their son had died after an illness.

The family was told that police had taken the body to Homa Bay County Referral Hospital mortuary.

"The family did not waste time; they immediately started making burial arrangement. Another team was sent to the mortuary and confirmed that the man who was brought by police was their kin," Mr Ndege said.

The family went further to make funeral announcements on local radio stations and spent a substantial amount of money buying food for guests and other burial expenses.

Coincidentally, Mr Olwa was listening to radio while fishing at Alum beach when he heard the announcement that he had died from an unknown illness.

"He called some of his relatives back at home to stop any plans of burying a body. Some relatives were sent to where he was to verify the truth," the chief said.

Meanwhile, burial plans went on back at home in Godmiaha village as some relatives did not believe the caller’s message. This was because the man left home some 20 years ago and had not been heard from since then.

The other relatives visited him on Saturday morning as the funeral ceremony started back at home.

When they arrived with him, they found speeches going on.

The body had been taken from the mortuary on Friday for burial on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Ndege said the relatives who had gone to Alum beach where Mr Olwa works returned with him as “his body” was about to be buried.

Mr Olwa assured his relatives who had gathered for the funeral that he was still alive and they should not be worried.

The family had to take the body they were about to bury back to the mortuary since nobody claimed it.

'TRAGEDY': UP TO 150 PEOPLE FEARED DROWNED IN MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Tripoli, LIBYA

Scores of refugees and migrants are feared drowned after the boats they were travelling in capsized off Libya's coast in the Mediterranean Sea, according to aid agencies and officials.

Nearly 700 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the UN 

Ayoub Qasim, a spokesman for Libya's coastguard, told The Associated Press news agency that two boats carrying around 300 people sank around 120km east of the capital, Tripoli, before adding that 134 others were rescued.

However, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a Twitter post on Thursday that more than 150 people were feared drowned while 145 were rescued and returned to Libya after the incident.

Charlie Yaxley, spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), said the survivors were picked up by local fishermen and then taken back to shore by the Libyan coastguard.

"We estimate that 150 migrants are potentially missing and died at sea," he said. "The dead include women and children."

"The worst Mediterranean tragedy of this year has just occurred," Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said.

He called on European nations to resume rescue missions in the Mediterranean, halted after a European Union decision, and appealed for an end to migrant detentions in Libya. Safe pathways out of the North African country are needed "before it is too late for many more desperate people", Grandi said.

Qasim told AFP news agency that most of the rescued from the sea were from Ethiopia while others were Palestinians and Sudanese.

Sabah Youssef, from Sudan, lost her seven-year-old child after the boat sank. "I don't want anything now except to go back to my country, Sudan, to die there," Youssef, who was rescued, told Reuters news agency.

Some of the survivors shared their ordeal at the sea.

"In the afternoon, we started from Libya going to Italy, but when we went there, after one hour the ship started to sink and most of them (people) sank," an unnamed survivor from Eritrea told AP.

Migrants boat

Another survivor from Eritrea added: "We rescued ourselves. No-one could help us and no one came to rescue us, and here we are in a big problem so we need your (International community) help."

Libya is one of the main departure points for migrants and refugees fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa and attempting to reach Europe by boat via the Mediterranean.

Those who make the journey often travel in overcrowded and unsafe vessels.

Nearly 700 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the IOM, almost half as many as the 1,425 registered in 2018.

"If current trends for this year continue, that will see us pass more than 1000 deaths in the Mediterranean for the sixth year in a row," Yaxley, the spokesman for UNHCR told Al Jazeera.

"That’s a really bleak milestone. It comes just weeks after more than 50 people lost their lives in a detention centre following an airstrike in Tajoura, and really once again stresses the [need] for a shift in approach to the situation in Libya and the Mediterranean."

An estimated 6,000 refugees and migrants are held in detention centres across Libya, while some 50,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers reside elsewhere in the country, according to the UNHCR.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the conflict-wracked sprawling North African country is not a safe place for migrants and refugees to be held in and called for those in detention centres to be released.

It has also urged the European Union to drop its policy of backing the Libyan coastguard to intercept and forcibly return people caught while trying to cross to Europe from the country. 

The EU ended its naval patrols in the Mediterranean in March due to disagreements on how to divide those rescued among EU member states.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has objected to the existing arrangement because most of the rescued migrants and refugees were brought to Italian ports.

Salvini, who is also Italy's deputy prime minister, has barred charity rescue vessels from docking at Italy's ports, and threatened to fine transgressors tens of thousands of euros and impound their vessels.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in recent days slammed the EU's approach, saying the "suffering" of migrants and refugees in Libya and "deaths" of others in the Mediterranean were "preventable".

"Politicians would have you believe that the deaths of hundreds of people at sea, and the suffering of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya, are the acceptable price of attempts to control migration," Sam Turner, MSF's head of mission for search and rescue in Libya, said in a statement on Sunday.

"The cold reality is that while they herald the end of the so-called 'European migration crisis', they are knowingly turning a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis these policies perpetuate in Libya and at sea," he added.

KENYA'S FINANCE MINISTER ARRESTED FOR CORRUPTION

By Our Correspondent, NAIROBI

Kenya's Finance Minister Henry Rotich and other treasury officials have been arrested on corruption and fraud charges related to a multimillion-dollar project to build two massive dams, police said.

Rotich, his principal secretary and the chief executive of Kenya's environmental authority handed themselves in to the police on Monday, hours after the country's chief prosecutor ordered the arrest and prosecution of Rotich and 27 other top officials.

"They are in custody now awaiting to be taken to court," police chief George Kinoti told AFP news agency.

"We are looking for [the] others and they will all go to court."

Rotich's arrest marks the first time a sitting Kenyan minister has been arrested on corruption charges, in a country where graft is widespread. The charges against him stem from a police investigation into the misuse of funds in a dam project overseen by the Italian construction company CMC Di Ravenna.

Rotich denied any wrongdoing in a large newspaper advertisement in March. The company has also denied any wrongdoing.

Noordin Haji, Kenya's Director of Public Prosecutions, said the finance minister and the co-accused would face eight charges, ranging from conspiring to defraud and financial misconduct.

"They broke the law on public finance management under the guise of carrying out legitimate commercial transactions, colossal amounts were unjustifiably and illegally paid out through a well-choreographed scheme by government officers in collusion with private individuals and institutions," Haji told a news conference earlier on Monday.

According to the contract, the project was to cost a total of $450m, but the treasury had increased this amount by $164m "without regard to performance or works", he said.

Some $180m has already been paid out, with little construction to show for it.

Another $6m was paid out for the resettlement of people living in areas that would be affected by the project, but there is no evidence of land being acquired for this, he said.

"I am satisfied that economic crimes were committed and I have therefore approved their arrests and prosecutions," said Haji.

Rotich's arrest will send shockwaves through the political elite, who are accustomed to corruption scandals resulting in little official action.

Earlier this year, the finance minister's questioning by police provoked an angry reaction among politicians from his powerful Kalenjin ethnic group.

Rotich's arrest may also be seen as further evidence of growing distance between President Uhuru Kenyattaand Deputy President William Ruto. Ruto had requested Rotich's appointment.

On Monday, Ruto's allies played down the charges.

"There is nothing to worry about. Relax," Kipchumba Murkomen, the senate majority leader and a Ruto ally, told reporters.

Critics have accused Kenyatta, who was re-elected for a second term last year, of failing to deal with corruption despite his promises to do so.

"We've seen the president coming out very strongly over the years saying he wants to make this issue a priority, he wants to leave behind a corrupt-free country, but a lot of Kenyans are disappointed," Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi said, reporting from Samburu County in Kenya.

"Over the years we've seen major scandals involving public money, millions of dollars, involving public figures as well ... arrests have been made. But then people are saying that beyond that nothing happens, they have not seen any convictions,  those who are found culpable haven't seen their assets frozen, or their money returned to taxpayers," she said.

"Thirty percent of government expenditure is lost to corruption and mismanagement .. a lot of Kenyans are saying that they need the president to do more if this fight against corruption is to be won."

Rotich's arrest was a "significant" step on a very long road, said Samuel Kimeu, the head of Kenya's chapter of Transparency International.

But he added: "I would not be celebrating arrests. We need to see people in jail and we need to see what has been stolen recovered."