The sale of a luxury hotel owned by the state has developed into the biggest test yet of Kenya's post-election coalition government, exposing new fractures within the cabinet and giving parliament a chance to hold the country's leaders to account.

The position of Amos Kimunya, the finance minister at the centre of the affair, looked increasingly tenuous yesterday after a team of lawmakers appointed to examine the deal recommended that he and the central bank governor should step down to allow a full investigation.