Kinoti launches scathing attack on DPP Haji
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Director of Public Prosecutions, accusing him of frustrating the fight against corruption.
Kinoti stunned members of the Administration and National Security Committee of the National Assembly, when he told them that since he took over office in 2018, he had failed to secure any convictions in all the graft cases he had investigated and forwarded the files to the DPP.
He revealed that in 2018, he was forced to bypass the DPP and take the cases straight to the courts, winning 22 convictions.
Kinoti now wants his officers and those from the National Police Service protected from unnecessary and unlawful directives from other quarters as it hampers the spirit of the officers.
“The law empowering the police must be respected the way it is provided in terms of independence, jurisdiction and mandate,” said the DCI.
Kinoti who cut a frustrated figure as he appeared before the committee behind to closed doors, said his officers felt discouraged and that the morale was at its lowest.
“The DCI sounded a man who has reached the end. While his officers were putting a lot of hours to investigate cases, they end up on the ODPP’s desk without any action taken on them,” said a member of the committee.
He gave a breakdown of all the corruption cases his team had investigated and forwarded to the ODPP since he took over, including 107 files in 2018, 131 in 2019 and 96 in 2020.
Files still with the ODPP are 24 in 2018, 38 in 2019 and 16 in 2020, while there are 193 files still under prosecution.
He however noted that none of these cases have secured convictions, directing blame at the ODPP.
Following Kinoti’s lamentations, the committee, chaired by Kiambaa MP Paul Koinange resolved to summon DPP Noordin Haji.
Talking to the People Daily after the meeting, Koinange said the committee will write to the DPP to appear before it to defend himself against Kinoti’s allegations.
“We are going to write to the DPP in the next few days inviting him to appear before us preferably next week to explain the issues raised by the DCI,” Koinange said in an interview. There has been sibling rivalry between the DCI and Office of the DPP.
