David Mwiraria

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David (Daudi) Mwiraria (born September 3, 1938) was the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources previously Finance Minister of Kenya until December 2007 when Kenya held its General Elections. Despite running for re election on a Party of National Unity ticket, he was unable to retain his seat as Member of parliament for North Imenti constituency and was defeated by Silas Muruiki Ruteere who was running on a Mazingira Greens Party of Kenya ticket.

Following revelations that he had been involved in the Anglo Leasing Scandal, he decided to resign as Finance Minister on 1 February 2006. He maintained that he was innocent and claimed that he was stepping down to pave way for investigations.^[1] Despite there being no investigation report clearing Mwiraria, President Mwai Kibaki appointed him Minister for Environment on July 24, 2007.

He got his master's degree in Statistics from the Makerere University, Uganda 1966 (then part of the University of East Africa).

Mwiraria features prominently in audio recordings released on the internet in 2006 by John Githongo, exiled former Permanent Secretary in the Kenya Government, which indicate Mwiraria was trying to stop Githongo's inquiries into the theft of over 777 million US Dollars in a series of 18 security related contracts, colloquially called Anglo Leasing.

[edit] Travel ban

In December 2007, Mwiraria, Nicholas Biwott, Sanjay Kumar Ramniklal, and Manoj Ramniklal Panacha Shah were banned from traveling to or through the United Kingdom due to corruption charges.^[2]