Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji wants vetting of political candidates to involve administrative ways to block those with pending corruption cases.
Haji on Thursday expressed his frustration with the country's justice system that enables technicalities to be exploited by corrupt politicians to evade accountability.
He decried the fact that despite some senior politicians including governors facing serious economic crime cases, they are allowed to access their offices and hence compromise the cases.
Haji spoke when he took Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scot on a tour of the Prosecution Training Institute at Loresho in Nairobi
The DPP said it would be a fundamental mistake to allow impeached governors to vie for office.
Haji will explore the options through the National Council on the Administration of Justice where he is the vice chair.
Electoral agency IEBC has cited a 2013 court ruling that allowed President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to vie for the presidency while facing the crimes against humanity cases at the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
But Haji said the legal route notwithstanding, the agencies vetting political candidates should exercise administrative discretion to block the tainted candidates.
Vetting of the candidates is expected to start after political parties submit list of their duly nominated candidates to the IEBC.
The commission's chairperson Wafula Chebukati had said the agency would then submit the names to the various states agencies for vetting.
The agencies taking part in the exercise include the EACC, DPP, the Ombudsman and other state security apparatus.
"I hope we have bold leaders at the agencies to make the right decisions on who to vie or not," Haji said.
"It is particularly frustrating that even governors with serious cases are allowed back to the offices and manipulate the files to compromise their cases," he added.
The DPP also disavowed perception that his office stopped corruption prosecutions, saying he only priorities election-related cases.
-Edited by SKanyara
