A dispute between members of the Kuwaiti government, who are also leading parts of the ruling family, came into the open Saturday after being referred to the Public Prosecution over the shortcoming of fighting corruption and the misappropriation of public money.
For the first time in Kuwait’s history, the defense and interior ministers clashed in public by issuing statements attacking each other.
On Saturday, reports said that the Sabah family is expected to meet to contain the dispute between resigned Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, caretaker Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and caretaker Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah.
In a statement posted on the army’s Twitter account, Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser said he discovered embezzlements of 240 million Kuwaiti dinars from the Kuwaiti army fund when Sheikh Khaled was the minister.
Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah was the defense minister between 2013 and 2016.
He became an interior minister after the appointment of Sheikh Nasser in late 2017 as a defense minister.
Sheikh Nasser said he had asked the prime minister to take action against the embezzlements.
The Defense Minister said the PM responded by setting an investigation committee to probe the allegations, however, this was not satisfactory to him and accordingly, he sent the issue to the public prosecution.
For his part, the Interior Minister lashed back at the accusations and denied that he committed any financial violation regarding the fund.
Sheikh Khaled said he was ready to stand trial in the Kuwaiti judiciary to prove his innocence for both, the political leadership and the Kuwaiti people.
On Thursday, Kuwait’s Cabinet has resigned after Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak has tendered the government’s resignation to the country’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad.
“The resignation of the Cabinet was not to give time to allow reshuffling the Cabinet but to avoid answering questions over the graft in the army fund,” Sheikh Nasser said, commenting on the issue.
