Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has welcomed the ruling of the Court of Appeal upholding a decision by the High Court that barred governors charged with criminal offences from accessing office.
Hajji on Friday said the ruling has upheld the centrality of public interest as an essential consideration where public officials abuse trust.
"This is a landmark decision in a country where public officials have increasingly treated their public offices as personal property," Hajji said in a statement to newsrooms.
Hajji said it is the duty of all of those who are placed in such positions of trust to understand that the public requires to be served and not consumed.
"In discharging our constitutional mandate, the ODPP reiterates its commitment to play its part, however modestly in ensuring that what is in the public interest is upheld," he said.
Hajji said his office will continue to execute its mandate without fear or favor with utter focus on the demands of justice for all.
Governors Moses Lenolkulal and Ferdinand Waititu suffered another blow after the Court of Appeal upheld a ruling barring them from accessing office.
Appeal judges on Friday said stay orders are a constructive measure and do not amount to removal from office.
On whether the cash bail granted is harsh, the judges said setting of bail is at the discretion of the court. "We have no basis of faulting it."
Lenolkulal had in July appealed against Justice Mumbi Ngugi’s decision to decline to exercise her powers of revision over a ruling that bars him from accessing his office.
The governor is charged alongside 13 others and faces four counts, including conspiracy to commit an offence of corruption, abuse of office and unlawful acquisition of property contrary to the law.
Ngugi stated that she looked beyond the interests of the individual holder of the constitutional office and considered the wider public interest.
“In the matter before me, the governor of a county, to whom Article 10 and Chapter 6 apply, is charged with the offence of abuse of office. He is charged with basically enriching himself at the expense of the people of Samburu county who elected him and whom he is expected to serve,” she said.
Waititu, now impeached, had in July put on a spirited fight to ensure he remains in office, pending his trial.
This is after Anti-Corruption Court magistrate Lawrence Mugambi imposed the condition as he granted him Sh15 million bail and alternative Sh30 million bond.
Mugambi said barring Waititu from going back to office does not violate the Constitution or amount to his removal but is intended to ensure the integrity and credibility of the trial and safeguard the public interest.
