An international conference of prosecutors hosted in January by DPP Noordin Haji seems to be bearing fruits after some countries signed deals with his office in complex crime fight.
The 16th annual conference of African prosecutors held in Mombasa late last month saw highest ranking prosecutorial officials from 42 countries participate. The conference was opened by President William Ruto.
Haji says his office has processed and signed numerous cooperation deals with the foreign prosecutors to enhance tackling of transnational crimes. This includes money laundering, terrorism, and drug and human trafficking among others.
The latest to sign such a deal is Morocco’s Attorney General and President of Public Prosecutions Moulay El Hassan Daki. It was signed on Tuesday.
Haji said his office has sealed similar cooperation pacts with countries like Uganda, Somalia among others and was at high-level talks to ink one with Tanzania.
“Tanzania is next and these are the fruits of the conference we had in Mombasa. Our aim is to develop African solution to unique African problems with regards to enforcement of law and reigning in transnational crimes,” he said.
In the deal with Morocco, the two offices agreed to share information regarding the complex crimes and make extraditing suspects easy.
Morocco, being a francophone country, operates on civil law while anglophones like Kenya operates on common law.
Haji said the deal envisions simplifying the diverse legal paradigms to enable tackling of the complex crimes, denying the criminals the safety of the technicalities that gives them cover to sustain their vices.
“The MoU will strengthen networking and cooperation in combatting trans- national organised crimes such as cyber crimes, corruption, money laundering, trafficking in drugs and persons, terrorism, and violent extremism,” a brief from Haji’s office about the Morocco’s deal read in part.
The cooperation will also enable training arrangements for the prosecutors from Kenya and sharing of experience to firm up technical competence in handling the cases.
“The parties shall cooperate on a number of areas ranging from the exchange of official working visits at all levels to maintain and strengthen mutual understanding, the strengthening of cooperation in prosecutors’ training, to the organisation of conferences, thematic seminars related to the professional skills of the parties.”
According to UN’s crime and drug arm UNODC, the East African region has a mix of factors that make it vulnerable to trafficking of persons, drugs, firearms and money laundering.
It says that the “the region encompasses both developing and fragile states, some of them struck by severe poverty, creating a combination that has been providing fertile ground for criminal networks to exploit the different contexts.”
“The criminal activities of these networks include trafficking in persons, drugs, firearms, and natural resources, and profit and launder the proceeds of such crimes throughout the region,” the body says.
As a result of this, it says, “Eastern Africa is increasingly becoming a hub for new trafficking routes, and with criminal groups and illicit traffickers collaborating and operating across borders via advanced technologies and digital means, organised crime is rapidly becoming a complex challenge to counter.”
The body says that the “transnational organised crime is posing a significant threat to human security both in and beyond the region” but that “many countries are ill-equipped to tackle the complexities of cross-border crime, as well as provide necessary care for migrants and victims of trafficking.”
Cooperation between law enforcement organs of the various countries become vital, it says.
The DPP says this fact makes the transnational cooperation in combating crime indispensable.
Haji says he is keen to develop a framework of using technology to track and neuter perpetrators of organised transnational crime.
-Edited by SKanyara
