- Attorney General Justin Muturi is on the spot after revelations an agency under his office has operated for more than eight years without a board of directors.
- The Victims Protection Board, charged with protection of victims of crime, is yet to be incorporated since 2014 when the law establishing it was enacted.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Attorney General Justin Muturi has been put on the spot after revelations a state agency under his office has operated for more than eight years without a board.
It has emerged the Victims Protection Board, charged with protecting crime victims, is yet to be incorporated since 2014 when the law establishing it was enacted.
The disclosure is contained in a petitioned filed with the Senate by Nayan Salva, a citizen seeking investigations of the AG’s office over the delayed appointment of a board.
Boards set policy and priorities and give direction to an organisation. Without one, activities tend to be unfocused and disorganised and staff may work at cross-purposes or duplicate work.
“The petitioner prays the Senate probes the role of the office of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice in the operationalisation of the Act,” speaker Amason Kingi said while reading out the petition on the floor.
According to the petitioner, despite the Victims' Protection Act, which is legislation that creates a board, being enacted in 2014, the agency still lacks a board.
Besides, the Victims' Rights Charter has not been implemented.
“The staff of the Victims' Protection Board have been receiving a salary for eight years yet the Board remains unincorporated and the Victims' Rights Charter has not yet been launched,” the petition states.
The Board is mandated to advise the Cabinet Secretary responsible for matters relating to Justice on interagency activities aimed at protecting victims of crime.
Salva wants the Senate to investigate the reason for the delay in implementation of the incorporation of the Victims' Protection Board and the launching of the Victims' Rights Charter.
The House has been called upon to inquire into the operations of the Victims' Protection Board and its activities since 2014.
Reacting to the petition, the lawmakers placed the blame squarely at Muturi’s doorstep as they claimed many other agencies are operating without boards.
Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana said it was unfortunate that staff of the agency are receiving salaries yet their jobs are not well defined because of the non-incorporation of the board.
“It is very sad that there are people in this country who have been collecting salaries for the last eight years. As per that petition, they have not been doing any work and yet they have been drawing salaries from the Government coffers,” he said.
“I stand on the floor of this House to ask the Attorney General to take up an audit of these laws and some of the bodies that have been formed under the laws, so that we do not have these wastages,” he added.
Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago said that it was saddening that some civil servants were drawing salaries for more than eight years without well-defined work.
“The issue of incorporations of boards is not only limited to the human rights board we are discussing in this petition.”
“There are quite a number of institutions that are operating outside the law because of the absence of a Board,” he said.
“It is high time that those organisations are given a timeline. I ask this House to give a specific timeline for incorporation of these boards,” he said.
(Edited by V. Graham)