Former CS Najib Balala - Courtesy

A Kenyan former tourism minister has been arrested over Sh8.5 billion alleged corruption in the construction of the Kilifi Utalii College.

Najib Balala was arrested by the Kenyan anti-corruption agency on Thursday night alongside former Principal Secretary Leah Gwiyo and Joseph Odero an engineer from West Consult Engineers.

The Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) Spokesperson, Eric Ngumbi said Balala was arrested in Nairobi and will be flown to Mombasa and later driven to a Malindi court to face charges.

Also lined up for prosecution are officials from the Procurement and Finance departments.

EACC has said Balala and his accomplices will face 10 charges related to irregular payment of Sh8.5 billion from the Tourism Fund to put up the Coast branch of the Kenya Utalii College that was renamed Ronald Ngala Utalii College.

“They were arrested after the Director of Public Prosecution or DPP approved charges and they will be taken to court,” the EACC Spokesman said.

They are facing corruption and economic crimes charges that include procurement fraud and misappropriation of public funds.

Investigations established that numerous procurement frauds shot up the approved cost of putting up the college from Sh1.95 billion to 10.4 billion.

This is contained in a Cabinet memo signed by Balala in May 2007.