Haji, Kinoti collaboration tested as agencies differ on Manduku case

After two years of what appeared to be a perfect working relationship between the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji and the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti, their collaboration, which once had corrupt public officials shivering every Friday, has hit turbulence.

Frustrated by inability to successfully convict a single big fish despite having dozens of cases still in court, Mr Kinoti and Mr Haji started reading from different scripts a few months ago.

Looking back, the writing seems to have been on the wall, and what was missing was the one case that would bring out the differences between the two.

That finally happened on Tuesday, when DPP Haji declined to charge Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) Managing Director Daniel Manduku with graft. He recalled the case file for review at the last minute, when Mr Manduku was already in the basement cells of the Milimani Law Courts waiting to be charged.

Officers from the DPP and the DCI clashed over the status of investigations and prosecution of Mr Manduku and Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner for Customs Kevin Safari when the two appeared before Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot.

While the investigating officer disclosed to the court that he brought the duo with a charge sheet, the prosecutor indicated the case should have been registered at the registry as a fresh plea matter but he did not know why that had not been done, yet the suspects were already in court.

The magistrate, on the other hand, said he did not have a case file containing the names of the two or any information about them, and wondered why they were appearing before him.

“You cannot hold a suspect with no charge sheet. You can always bring a request to detain someone, but in the absence of a charge sheet, nothing can be done from the court,” said Mr Cheruiyot.

This embarrassing situation, where the DPP and the DCI contradicted each other in open court, was the first of its kind since the two were sworn into office.

“This is a bigger war than what anybody is trying to explain to the nation,” remarked Dunstan Omari, a lawyer representing one of the suspects.

Left with no choice, Mr Cheruiyot released Mr Manduku and Mr Safari.

In the hours preceding Mr Manduku’s presentation in court, the DCI had, according to Mr Manduku’s lawyers, prevented the KPA boss from meeting his family and legal team at the Muthaiga Police Station.

In withdrawing the file from the court, Mr Haji said he had not yet reviewed the file by the time Mr Manduku was arrested and that the DCI took him by surprise. However, the DCI has, on more than one occasion since mid-last year, said he had completed investigations into alleged graft at the KPA, but claiming the files were stuck at the DPP’s office.

Two weeks ago, the DCI said he had completed investigations and handed over the file to the DPP in November last year.

“I can assure you that the threshold is 100 per cent and not anything less than that. We are waiting for the approval from the DPP for arraignment of the criminals who we have listed as suspects, but as far as the DCI is concerned, we are absolutely done with our investigations,” said Mr Kinoti.

Mr Haji confirmed receipt of the file.

The Nation understands that a senior politician who benefited from the Kisumu Port, which is yet to be launched, has been trying to scuttle all investigations regarding KPA.

Mr Manduku and Mr Safari were to face charges of unlawfully awarding tenders to two companies for the construction of cargo storage facilities at the Nairobi Inland Container Depot on behalf of KPA.