Kinoti, Haji have the zeal but no tools, so expect no results

The prosecution and criminal investigations’ duo of Noordin Haji and George Kinoti cut a rather frustrated figure at the media briefing called to react to the High Court ruling on Friday that stopped the trial of Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu.

OBTAIN EVIDENCE

As usual, Mr Haji and Mr Kinoti got their sound bites right, taking turns to reiterate their sense of grievance with the courts while promising to appeal. Their fury at losing such a high value case was understandable.

Since the dynamic duo happened on the scene about a year ago, they haven’t quite matched their performance in court with the high drama of media leaks and the ‘Kamata Kamata Fridays’ – the movie-ready arrest scenes often featuring detectives scaling walls and gates to gain entry to the suspects’ homes at dawn and then carting away documents.

Claiming the scalp of no less a person than the second in command at the Judiciary would have put some wind in the sails of an assignment that is increasingly getting tougher and tougher for the country's chief prosecutor and chief detective.

At face value, it would seem that the judges let Justice Mwilu off the hook too easily.

The five-judge bench found little problem with the charges the prosecution intended to bring against the Deputy Chief Justice if the investigators had cared to obtain the evidence legally.

The disproportionate weight the judges appear to have put on a legal technicality gave Mr Haji and Mr Kinoti with a convenient straw to clutch at during their post-ruling press conference.

Yet the chronic failure by the prosecution and the investigators to get the basics right calls for a deeper scrutiny of their performance.

COVER-UP SCHEME

After being taken on a fairytale ride in the ICC cases by the Argentinean hype man Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Kenyans need to be wary of too much prosecution drama and no results.

For all the public displays of commitment to the war against corruption by Mr Haji and Mr Kinoti in the past one year, the institutions they lead remain ill-equipped for the job.

In the Mwilu case, for example, the Director of Public Prosecutions had to hire a Queens Counsel from Britain to help with handling it, suggesting either a shortage of personnel or doubts about the quality available at Sheria House.

If you still follow the Anglo Leasing case from media reports, you have most likely run into difficulties a few times telling the prosecution witnesses from the defence witnesses.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations hasn’t kicked its strangely familiar habit of bungling its own cases.

Recently, Mr Kinoti was reported to have suspended some officers who initially investigated the case in which lawyer Asa Nyakundi was accused of shooting his son to death after they allegedly engaged in a cover-up scheme.

If Mr Haji and Mr Kinoti still believe they can pull it off, they definitely lack the right tools for it.

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