Mudavadi: Growing SUSPICION, & ANIMOSITY between the DPP, Mr. Noordin Haji, and the DCI, Mr. George Kinoti should end.

1. The Directorate of CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS (DCI), the Directorate of PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (DPP), the JUDICIARY and the AUDITOR GENERAL’S Office are all sitting badly. This does not augur well for CRIMINAL JUSTICE in the country. The fact that we are today fighting against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) should not mask our concern about CREEPING DYSFUNCTION in these crucial public entities that are central to dispensation of justice. Justice – and especially JUSTICE IN THE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION – should not be placed UNDER QUARANTINE, because of covid-19. Accordingly, I wish to make the following observations, in this season of covid-19.
2. Our attention has been drawn to the growing SUSPICION, and ANIMOSITY between the DPP, Mr. Noordin Haji, and the DCI, Mr. George Kinoti. Twice in two months, the two directors have denied in public that there is BAD BLOOD between them. As often happens in such situations, they have BLAMED THE MEDIA for what they call “misleading the public.”
3. While we may want to take some level of comfort in these assurances, we cannot ignore the truth in the saying that WHERE THERE IS SMOKE, THERE IS FIRE. It is impossible that the entire Media fraternity in the country could conspire to peddle falsehoods on a matter of such critical importance as the relationship between the two topmost officials in the two main institutions charged with fighting crime in the country.
4. The entire spectrum of the war against crime – and especially that against corruption – is dangerously under threat, when those charged with the responsibility of fighting crime begin FIGHTING EACH OTHER, INSTEAD OF FIGHTING CRIME. We at ANC have the confusing experience of a matter under investigation stalling somewhere, for more than ONE YEAR now, between DCI and DPP. As a country we need to get to the bottom of what ails relations between the two institutions, before they become the GRAVEYARD OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE in the country. We cannot afford to be the country in which investigations disappear quietly and inconclusively between the DCI and the DPP, just because two officers are not able to work together.
5. Beyond the differences between the two public officers, their differences could morph into CAUSTIC RIVALRY BETWEEN THE TWO INSTITUTIONS that they head. If this happens, it will mark the end of criminal justice in the country. For, it will not matter who heads these entities in future. Regardless of who heads which entity, we will never see any useful conclusion to any matter in their mutual hands. The spinoff is that CRIMINALS WILL RUN RIOT with their activities. The war against corruption and other forms of crime will be permanently lost.
6. Together with the ETHICS AND ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION (EACC), the DPP and DCI have the MULTI AGENCY TEAM (MAT) as a joint clearing house that should be used to nip in the bud any potential misunderstandings. It appears that this joint forum is not being used. That is why friction between the DCI and the DPP keeps spilling into public space. In the interest of SUSTAINED STABILITY in criminal justice, the APPOINTING AUTHORITY needs to probe into the recurrent conflict between the two leaders. The appointing authority needs to call them to order once and for all. He also needs to probe the source of these differences and ensure that they are DEFINITIVELY put to rest.
7. Of related concern is the emerging ANXIETY IN THE JUDICIARY over SUCCESSION ISSUES. It is well known that Hon.Justice David Maraga, is on the home stretch, as he closes into IMMINENT RETIREMENT as the CHIEF JUSTICE and the President of the Supreme Court and CHAIRPERSON of the Judicial Service Commission.
8. If succession in the Judiciary is not well managed, INTERNAL STRIFE could compromise adjudication of justice in the law courts. A BAD PRECEDENT has already been set in the office of the AUDITOR GENERAL, which REMAINS VACANT so many months after Dr. Edward Ouko retired last year. His succession has gone into ATROPHY, and we seem to be quite happy to live with this. Needless to say, the continued vacancy of that office has been good for corruption – both in County Governments and in the National Government.
9. If we put the wrangling between the DPP and the DCI together with succession issues in the Auditor General’s office and now the looming trouble of succession in the Judiciary, we see A MOST FRIGHTENING PICTURE in the fight against corruption in Government. Whether these flaws are deliberate or not, they need to be arrested without further delay. The succession process in the Judiciary calls for urgent attention, just as the delayed appointment of a new Auditor General – and the sorting out of the tiff between the DCI and the DPP.
10. Finally, we seem to have accepted to live on with the lack of movement in the EFFORT, last year, TO APPOINT 41 JUDGES. The matter remains curiously in LIMBO, despite the fact that the country is in URGENT NEED for these judges. As a nation, we are getting into A BAD PLACE, where we accept to LIVE WITH IRREGULARITIES, despite the law being very clear. In particular, we risk CRIPPLING INDEPENDENT STATE INSTITUTIONS, or driving them into DYSFUNCTION. We need to jolt the institutions of the DCI, the DPP, the Auditor General’s office and the Judiciary back into profiles that imbue us with confidence in the war against corruption.

H. E. Musalia Mudavadi, EGH
ANC PARTY LEADER