• Haji said the NCIC has no legal authority to fault any decisions his office makes, in regard to charging an individual.
• NCIC had taken issue with Haji's decision to drop charges against Meru Senator Mithika Linturi who had been accused of hate speech.
Image: FILE
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has accused the National Cohesion and Integration Commission of overstepping its mandate.
In a letter seen by the Star, Haji said the NCIC has no legal authority to fault any decisions his office makes, in regard to charging an individual.
NCIC had taken issue with Haji's decision to drop charges against Meru Senator Mithika Linturi who had been accused of hate speech.
"In paragraph 1, you suggest that the action of withdrawing the application was a betrayal to the general public. Kindly note that, under Article 157(11) of the Constitution, the DPP is a custodian of public interest in criminal matters and this is clearly spelt out in the Decision to Charge Guidelines 2019 which were followed to the letter," Haji said.
Haji said the NCIC was attempting to interfere with its independence by influencing its decisions.
The DPP denied claims by NCIC that the withdrawal was a plot to help Linturi evade justice.
"You claim that the prosecution counsel lied to the court about the insufficiency of evidence. As earlier stated, it is the responsibility of the prosecution counsel to consider the evidence presented, apply all the necessary tools and decide whether or not to charge the suspect. An objective analysis of the evidence presented justifies the actions of the prosecution counsel," Haji said.
"Likewise, the prosecution is required to have regard to the public interest, the interest of the administration of justice, to prevent and avoid abuse of the legal process, uphold the rule of law and ensure the protection of the rights of suspects as more specifically set out in the constitution."
Haji insisted that the prosecution counsel in the case acted under the authority of his office.
On March 17, NCIC wrote a letter to the DPP protesting that the letter ordering the Inspector General of police Hilary Mutyambai to investigate Senator Linturi's hate speech allegations was taking away their mandate.
The commission said the withdrawal of the case without charging the suspect amounted to a conspiracy to defeat justice, which is an offence under the law.
"The actions of the Prosecution Counsel amounts to dereliction of duty on the part of the prosecution Counsel and a factor that will promote impunity on the suspects," NCIC said.
"The scheme to assist the suspect evade justice was sealed by terminating the Miscellaneous Criminal Application which automatically made the High Court petition unfounded."
In February, the prosecution failed to prefer charges against the Meru senator within the allocated time.
Consequently, Nakuru Chief Magistrate Edna Nyaloti dismissed the miscellaneous application by detectives who had sought to investigate the Senator for incitement.
The prosecution said it had withdrawn the miscellaneous applications as they awaited for several areas to be covered by the investigating officer and charges to be preferred later.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said that they had returned the file to the NCIC to fill in the gaps in the case.
"ODPP will make the decision to charge once investigations are complete in the ethnic Contempt Case against Senator Linturi. ODPP returned the file to NCIC to cover outstanding investigation gaps before resubmission."