December 1991 — A parliamentary vote reintroduces a multiparty political system. The vote comes a month after the World Bank suspends aid and a week after the Paris Club of donor countries and financial institutions follow suit, complaining of the human- and political-rights policies of Daniel arap Moi, who has been president for 13 years.
December 1992 — President Moi is re-elected in the state's first multiparty election in 26 years, after a campaign and election marred by violence and allegations of irregularities.
May 1992 — Kenneth Matiba, a former cabinet minister detained in 1990 for demanding multiparty democracy, returns to Kenya after a year in exile.
May 1993 — Police arrest Joseph Mugalla, secretary general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), and two other labor leaders, after they threaten a national strike if their demands for a wage increase are not met. They are released a few days later.
June 1993 — The Independent, a British newspaper, publishes allegations by the opposition Ford-Kenya Party that Kenyan firm Goldenberg International was paid billions of shillings by the government for phantom exports of gold and diamonds. The payments were made under a government program that provided exporters with pre-shipment financing and provided importers with enhanced compensation for bringing foreign currency to Kenya. The following year, authorities charge Goldenberg International chairman Kamlesh Pattni with cheating the Central Bank out of 13 billion shillings (US$226 million) between April and December 1993. Pattni and four senior government officials are ultimately charged with 93 counts of conspiracy for allegedly defrauding the Kenyan government of 25 billion shillings (US$351 million).
May 1995 — A United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) audit reveals that 24 employees in the organization's Kenya office stole or misappropriated 717 million shillings (US$10 million) over two years. The funds had been channeled into padded expense accounts, funneled to fake organizations and used to pay for nonexistent services.
February 1996 — President Moi suspends 20 senior Kenya Ports Authority and customs officials after 1,200 cars disappear two days before they are to be auctioned. The officials are charged with conspiracy to defraud the government by conspiring with car dealers to sell the cars without charging the required taxes. Moi's action is purportedly motivated by a pending 14 billion shilling (US$200 million) International Monetary Fund loan.
June 1996 — A parliamentary committee report finds that Kenya annually loses an average of 7.4 billion shilling (US$104.5 million) due to corruption in the country's 56 state firms. However, the committee is reportedly denied access to documents needed to complete the investigation because officials from the ruling Kenya National African Union (KANU) are accused of corruption in the report.
January 1997 — President Moi re-appoints to his cabinet former Minister of Industry Nicholas Biwott, a prime suspect in the 1990 murder of Foreign Minister Robert Ouko. Biwott had been held in police custody for two weeks but was released due to lack of evidence.
July 1997 — Days after the Goldenberg trial is halted by Kenya's High Court, the International Monetary Fund delays a 15 billion shilling (US$205 million), three-year loan to Kenya, citing concerns that the state is not sufficiently cracking down on corruption.
November 1997 — The government establishes the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) — one of several stipulations from the IMF necessary to reconsider its decision to cut funding. The IMF resumes its lending program in July 2000.
December 1997 — President Moi wins his fifth consecutive five-year term in an election plagued with violence and allegations of vote rigging.
March 1998 — During the trial of former Goldenberg International chairman Kamlesh Pattni and four senior government officials, the court receives testimony that former vice president and current minister for planning and national development, George Saitoti, had approved of the Goldenberg project. Delaying tactics prevent any major action on the case until February 2003, when newly elected President Mwai Kibaki appoints a judicial commission to investigate the case.
January 1999 — The Danish International Development Agency freezes 74 million kroner (US$12.8 million) in financial aid to health authorities because of the government's misuse of the money.
July 1999 — President Moi appoints renowned paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey to head the civil service in order to fight inefficiency and corruption. Within weeks, he sets about shaking up the bureaucracy. Leakey resigns less than two years later having largely failed at his task.
November 1999 — An audit of the Coffee Board of Kenya (CBK) reveals widespread mismanagement and misappropriation of state funds. In the following months, eight board officials are fired and three are charged with stealing 12.4 million shillings (US$170,000) of funds intended for small-scale coffee farmers.
July 2000 — KACA charges the minister for water development, Kipng'eno arap Ng'eny, with fraud and abuse of authority when he headed the Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corp. in 1993. He is acquitted in April 2001 but is re-arrested on the same charges, this time on behalf of the attorney general. Those charges are dismissed in November 2001 by the High Court.
December 2000 — The Constitutional Court disbands KACA, declaring it violates constitutional provisions that give sole arrest and prosecution authority to the police and attorney general.
September 2001 — President Moi establishes the Anti-Corruption Police Unit within the Kenya police department to replace KACA.
February 2002 — A senior World Bank official pleads guilty in the United States to foreign corrupt practices and conspiracy to commit corruption, admitting that he had received 9 million shillings (US$127,000) in kickbacks and helped arrange a 3.6 million shilling (US$50,000) bribe to the Kenyan official overseeing the Kenya Urban Transport Infrastructure Project (KUTIP), a project to improve and upgrade Kenya's roads.
May 2002 — Parliament passes the Corruption Control Bill, which proposes the establishment of the Kenya Corruption Control Authority, an independent body empowered to investigate allegations of corruption.
December 2002 — Mwai Kibaki of the National Rainbow Coalition Party is elected president, becoming the first non-KANU candidate to be elected since Kenya's independence in 1963. Kibaki promises to fight corruption and tackle economic issues.
January 2003 — Kibaki names longtime anti-corruption crusader John Githongo permanent secretary for governance and ethics.
February 2003 — Kibaki suspends Chief Justice Bernard Chunga after appointing a tribunal to investigate allegations that he protected corrupt judicial officers, intimidated fellow judges, interfered with judicial procedures, and misappropriated public property. Chunga resigns before the tribunal, the first of its kind in Kenya, is scheduled to meet.
March 2003 — Nahasashon Nyagah, governor of the Central Bank, resigns after being accused of failing to prevent the loss of 1.4 billion shillings (US$19.2 million) of state-owned company investments when Kenya's Euro Bank collapsed. John Munge, commissioner-general of the Kenya Revenue Authority and co-owner of Euro Bank, also resigns. Professor Julius Meme, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, is suspended after being charged with abuse of office in regard to the scandal. A constitutional court is established in January 2004 to handle six of the cases related to Euro Bank.
May 2003 — Kibaki signs two new laws: the Public Officers Ethics Act, which requires government employees to annually disclose their assets, and the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, which establishes new rules of transparency and accountability.
October 2003 — Justice Aaron Ringera, chairman of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Committee of the Judiciary, presents a report documenting corruption and other instances of misconduct among judges in Kenya. Kibaki suspends 23 judges accused of corruption and other offenses; all but eight resign rather than face tribunals that convene to hear their cases in February 2004.
December 2003 — Anti-corruption czar John Githongo announces the government will not prosecute former President Moi for his alleged corruption.
December 2003 — Kenya ratifies the United Nations Convention against Corruption and signs the African Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
May 2004 — The Anglo Leasing affair, a multi-million dollar scandal involving improprieties in the awarding of contracts for a passport printing system, becomes public. In January 2006, the scandal is given new life through the publication of John Githongo's report, in which he claims four top politicians, including the vice president, were involved and that President Kibaki had knowledge of the affair.
November 2005 — In a national referendum, voters reject constitutional amendments that would have ceded more power to the president.
December 2005 — A police recruitment drive is cancelled after the anti-corruption commission reports nearly eight out of every 10 candidates either paid bribes or used their connections to get jobs. The police commissioner also suspends about 60 senior police officers involved in the drive.
January 2006 — The local branch of Transparency International and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights issue a report denouncing the government for spending an extravagant amount on luxury vehicles at a time when the government is seeking international aid for widespread starvation in the north.
March 2006 — Central Bank Governor Andrew Mullei is arrested and charged with improperly hiring four people, including his son, as consultants to the bank.
March 2006 — Government security forces raid the offices of the Standard newspaper and the Kenya Television Network, confiscating equipment, burning thousands of newspapers and temporarily shutting down the TV station. The newspaper had frequently criticized President Kibaki.
March 2006 — Government blocks a report to Parliament on a multimillion- pound corruption scandal that has forced two ministers to resign.
April 2006 — The Dutch government suspends 11 billion shillings (US$148 million) in aid due to disappointment over the government's progress in its fight against corruption.
July 2006 — Expecting substantial legal fallout from the ongoing investigations into the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals, the Attorney General's Office announces it will hire 26 special attorneys to increase the office's prosecutorial capacity.
October 2006 — According to the United Nations, about 35,000 Somalis escaping drought and increasing conflict arrived in Kenyan camps since early 2006.
Global Integrity uses a