53 State officials in court for corruption charges - DPP

 

Only 53 cases involving top government officials on corruption has been registered in courts since 2017 to 2020.

This was from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions annual report.

The report was handed over to President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday at State House by DPP Noordin Haji.

According to the report, 22 Directors and Chief Executive Officers have been taken to court.

This was followed by 11 governors and Senior County Officials.

Some of the governors and ex- governors have been charged with graft-related cases and barred from accessing offices.

They are; Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu),  Moses Lenolkulal (Samburu) and Mike Sonko (Nairobi), all battling economic crimes and abuse of office charges.

About nine governors are under active EACC over claims of corruption.

They are; Migori’s Okoth Obado, Granton Samboja (Taita Taveta), Muthomi Njuki (Tharaka Nithi), Mwangi wa Iria (Murang’a), Charity Ngilu (Kitui), Mohamud Ali (Marsabit), Alex Tolgos (Elgeyo Marakwet) and Alfred Mutua (Machakos). 

According to the report, some seven Members of Parliament, seven Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries were also registered during the period.

Five Members of County Assembly and one Deputy County Commissioner were also registered.

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In the report, there was a total of 135 high impact cases involving more than Sh224b pending before court as at 30th of June 2020.

At least 57% of these cases were registered in court between January 2018 and June 2020 while 43% were registered before 2018.

Haji said that poor record-keeping, limited capacity to handling emerging crimes and the prosecution of complex crimes remained a major challenge.

These challenges have been cited as the main challenges crippling service delivery despite the ODPP endeavouring to ensure efficient and effective delivery of justice to Kenyans.

Haji in the Annual Report said there is a lack of standardisation in the management of records in the ODPP.

This makes it difficult to collect data on newly registered cases, ongoing and concluded cases.

After receiving the report, Uhuru encouraged the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to focus more on the successful prosecution of high profile cases especially those involving misuse of public resources.

"Confidence is a fleeting thing. If people don’t see results, that confidence can also evaporate. It is therefore important that results are also shown so as to justify the investments we are putting in," he said.