Prosecutors to be hired for gender violence suits
TOM MARUKO | nation
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Keriako Tobiko
Prosecutors from the civil society will be hired to handle sexual and gender-based violence cases, the Director of Public Prosecutions has said.
Mr Keriako Tobiko said that his office will for the first time gazette public prosecutors from civil society to handle the cases free of charge.
“The sexual and gender-based violence prosecutors will handle the cases on a pro bono basis and will operate under the direction and supervision of the DPP,” he said.
He added that it was one of the measures being taken to strengthen the DPP’s office and ease delivery of justice in view of the acute shortage of public prosecutors in the country.
The DPP was speaking on Monday at a Nairobi hotel during a meeting with civil society organisations to explore areas of cooperation between his office and the civil society.
Mr Tobiko also said that a Bill aimed at speeding up public prosecutions was in its final stages of drafting.
The National Prosecution Service Bill will establish the National Prosecution Service, which will have powers to recruit staff, negotiate terms and conditions of service with them and negotiate with Parliament for its budget.
Mr Tobiko said that this was one of the steps his office was taking towards autonomy and independence.
“It is an absurdity that while on the one hand the DPP’s office is an independent constitutional office, it depends on the mainstream civil service for staffing and operations on the other,” he said.
He added that such dependence has undermined his office and called on the civil society to give their input before the Bill is finalised and passed on to the Attorney-General for publication.
To strengthen the operations of his office, Mr Tobiko said he had set up a new organisational structure with four departments to be headed by deputy DPPs.
He said that his office has received approval for the recruitment of three new deputy directors and an additional 66 prosecution counsels.
Civil society groups at the meeting underscored the need for the government to increase the budgetary allocation to the DPP’s office to enable it to discharge its constitutional mandate effectively.
