Noordin Haji's last laugh in turf war with DCI as officers denounce claims

EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and former Directorate of Criminal Investigations boss George Kinoti address a past press conference. [File, Standard] Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji is having the last laugh after key planks of turf war cases with Directorate of Criminal Investigations are dropped, leaving them hanging precariously in courts. With exit of former DCI boss George Kinoti, senior DCI officers are recanting the claims they made against the DPP and in support of their former boss. The ugly spat between the two sides was exposed more in the constitutional petition No. E.184 of 2022 where one Memba Ocharo questioned the DPP's powers. In the matter involving the process of developing inter agency guidelines in investigating and prosecuting terrorism cases, DCI claimed they were not answerable to Inspector General of Police. In an affidavit, head of anti-terror unit at DCI Martin Otieno accused DPP of using unorthodox means to develop the guidelines, ignoring reservations of DCI and forging entries to imply DCI participated in a donor funded workshop to develop the guidelines. He claimed the lead consultant invited by ODPP was not qualified, that the consultant's ethnicity, religion was the same as Haji's hence they shared "united bias as a result of sharing religious beliefs." "As such we can infer that the guidelines were intended to protect certain community religious belief at the expense of other religious beliefs in the country," Otieno said, adding that the process of developing the guidelines was fraught with "forgery, fraud, deception, misrepresentation and duping of agencies and their principals into signing the same." In his latest affidavit, Otieno has recanted most of the claims including those on religious beliefs, consultant qualifications, funding of the workshop and hierarchy of command in police service. "I wish to recant every paragraph that is offensive and discriminatory to the religious and cultural beliefs of Haji and the consultant as it is offensive and not at par with the spirit of the Constitution." He now agrees that the DCI is under the control and command of the IG contrary to his earlier statements that he was only directly answerable to the president. He says he was not aware of the consultant's qualifications and recanted claims the he was underqualified. He also recanted claims that ODPP forged attendance register of the workshop to include DCI officers, saying the officers actually attended. In the other matter which entailed the implication of Court of Appeal Judge Justice Sankale Ole Kantai in the murder of businessman Tob Cohen, John Gachomo a senior DCI officer swore an affidavit in September 2021 tearing apart Haji's office involvement in the matter. In the affidavit, prepared and filed by the Office of Attorney General, Gachomo claimed DPP could not have purported to close the file since it never originated from him. He said National Police Service was independent and not subject to control and direction of the DPP. "The DPP appears not to have appreciated Tob Cohen's right to life and the rights of victims of the late Tob Cohen's murder that gained international publicity," he swore. He complained that the DPP was nurturing "the tumor of impunity and lawlessness" comparing him to an octopus which "unless checked continues stretching its eight tentacles here and there, grasping powers not constitutionally given." He asked the court to quash a DPP letter purporting to close the murder case against the judge, saying he was working in cahoots with suspects to defeat justice. He also claimed the DPP was all along in support of prosecuting the judge but pulled out last minute, leaving DCI hanging. In his latest affidavit, Gachomo says he was lured into signing a blank paper upon which the office of the AG attached other averments not known to him. He therefore dissociated himself from that affidavit in its entirety. The two cases are now shaky.

Noordin Haji's last laugh in turf war with DCI as officers denounce claims

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Noordin Haji's last laugh in turf war with DCI as officers denounce claims

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