JLAC want DPP delegate prosecutorial powers to anti graft body

 
The numerous push by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission may soon begin to directly prosecute the cases it investigates if the DPP implements a proposal by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
EACC argues that they are better placed and equipped, in all aspects, to prosecute the cases since they have a thorough understanding of everything in the files.
While tabling the Report before the National Assembly on the vetting of incoming CEO Abdi Mohamud, JLAC Vice Chairperson Mwengi Mutuse said that the committee concurred that the DPP should gazette EACC lawyers as special prosecutors to prosecute corruption cases.
“We are recommending as JLAC that the DPP does gazette lawyers working under EACC as prosecutors because the DPP has that power to gazette prosecutors so that lawyers who interact with cases at EACC may have also the powers to prosecute the same cases in court,” Mutuse said.
The proposal could mark an end to the current tussle between EACCand DPP on how graft cases in the country are prosecuted.
During his vetting for the position of EACC CEO by JLAC, Abdi Mohamud, the incoming EACC Boss, proposed that DPP delegates prosecutorial powers to EACC, as a solution to the current challenge of low conviction rate, collapsing of cases and delays in the finalization of cases involving theft of public funds.
“When you take a file that is 10 to 20 documents to a prosecutor, he may not have interacted with that file and may not have time to peruse through all the documents in the file,” Mohamud told MPs during vetting.
“But if it is a lawyer who was engaged in the collection of evidence, analysing the evidence asking the investigator go and collect for me this or that, that person in his mind clearly understands that file like the back of his hand.”
According to Mohamud, EACC has highly trained lawyers, including former Chief Magistrates, who guide investigators at every stage, and undertake review of all evidence before the files are forwarded to the DPP.