NAIROBI - A corruption "free-for-all" is the glue holding together Kenya's fragile coalition government, a former anti-corruption adviser was quoted as saying.

NAIROBI - A corruption "free-for-all" is the glue holding together Kenya's fragile coalition government, a former anti-corruption adviser was quoted as saying.

President Mwai Kibaki and his former opponent-turned-premier, Raila Odinga, were forced into a shaky union last year to stop the killing that followed a disputed presidential election.

But their administration has failed to stamp out the corruption, political analysts said.

"The kind of free-for-all graft that is being reported about is what keeps everyone at the feeding trough," said the former anti-corruption adviser to Kibaki, John Githongo.

Kenyans have been angry about news of graft in the maize and fuel sectors that emerged in the middle of a food shortage.

Githongo fled to Britain in 2005 after blowing the whistle on the "Anglo Leasing" affair, one of Kenya's biggest graft scandals, in which state contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars were awarded to phantom firms.

Kenya asked Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to investigate some of the contracts last May.

But the SFO said it had ended the inquiry because Nairobi had failed to supply them with evidence. - Reuters