NAIROBI, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously passed a motion of no confidence on Finance Minister Amos Kimunya over the controversial sale of a luxury hotel located in central Nairobi.

    The latest development in parliament now leaves President MwaiKibaki with no option but to sack the minister who had been until Wednesday under intense pressure to resign over the controversial sale to a Libyan firm of the Grand Regency Hotel regarded as a symbol of the rampant corruption of the Daniel arap Moi era.

    "To stop the grand corruption at the Treasury Kimunya must go. I wish to appeal to the appointing authority that there are 224 Members in this House who can replace Kimunya as the minister for finance," said lawmaker, Bonny Khalwale who moved the motion.

    Majority of legislators who contributed to the censure motion called on Kimunya to resign in order to protect the integrity of the grand coalition government.

    The lawmakers accused the finance minister of colluding with unnamed people of defrauding Kenyans and investors during the recently concluded sale of Kenya's largest mobile service provider, Safaricom Initial Public Offering.

    "Kimunya has been involved in so many shady deals at the Treasury. These included in the sale of Safaricom IPO, in the money printing form De La Rue and the latest sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. I demand that he resigns to protect his integrity," said Charles Kilonzo, another lawmaker.

    After months of denials, Kimunya was forced to admit last week that the luxury hotel had been sold for 2.9 billion shillings (about 45 million US dollars) - a price that critics say is less than half the market value.

    However, Lands minister, Orengo insisted on Monday that the hotel was sold to a Kenyan-registered firm, Libyan Arab African Investment Company Kenya Limited, and not to the Libyan government, for 1.85 billion shillings.

    The sale of the hotel has elicited angry reactions across the country with heightened calls for the sacking of Kimunya.

    Scores of protesters, including 10 lawmakers, marched to the Grand Regency hotel in central Nairobi on Tuesday, demanding that Kimunya step down or be sacked.

    Kimunya is under intense pressure to resign over the controversial sale to a Libyan firm of the Grand Regency Hotel regarded as a symbol of the rampant corruption of the Daniel arap Moi era.

    The scandal comes as President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are struggling to attract foreign investment to rebuild a country ripped apart by post-election violence that claimed at last 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands.

    The deal involving Libyan investors has also added to suspicions of continued large-scale corruption after a series of scandals in the country which some foreign investors cite as a major deterrent to investment.

    Odinga and Kibaki formed a coalition government in February after at least 1,000 people died and more than 300,000 were forced to flee their homes when clashes broke out after the disputed Dec.27 election.

    The crisis erupted after Kibaki won a second five-year term in the vote that Odinga said was rigged.