Tobiko laid strong base for new ODPP

Former Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Senior Counsel Keriako Tobiko, then Deputy Public Prosecutor, transited as the first DPP.
  • This resulted in sponsorships for Master’s degree studies and targeted short courses for staff.

The 2010 Constitution created the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with wide-ranging prosecutorial powers, taking over criminal prosecution from the Office of the Attorney-General.

Senior Counsel Keriako Tobiko, then Deputy Public Prosecutor, transited as the first DPP. Mr Tobiko, who resigned from office recently following his nomination to the Cabinet, came in with impeccable academic credentials — including a First-Class Honours Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi and a Master of Law from Cambridge University, England.

POLICE

Mr Tobiko had the difficult task of reinventing and transforming the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to align it with the constitutional dictates of independence.

The DPP, who has a secured tenure of eight years and such immense (sometimes seemingly unbridled) powers to control criminal prosecutions, can order the police to conduct investigations and to institute, undertake, take over or discontinue prosecution.

Among Mr Tobiko’s achievements is raising the number of prosecution counsel from 93 at inception to 627 while non-legal staff increased from 112 to 402.

Mr Tobiko devolved the ODPP. From only 13 field stations across the country in 2011, it has fully fledged offices in all the 47 counties with prosecution counsel in all the 121 court stations.

Then, over 95 per cent of prosecutions in the subordinate courts were handled by 305 police prosecutors, who have been replaced with professional prosecution counsel.

PROMOTE

To promote transparency and accountability in its decisions and enhance efficiency and effectiveness of prosecutions, the ODPP developed key prosecutorial policy documents, guidelines and manuals.

For the prosecutors, perhaps the most exciting development was the deliberate move to foster specialisation of the professional staff. The ODPP established 29 vibrant thematic prosecution divisions, sections and units.

To ensure responsiveness, access to justice and good governance in service delivery, Mr Tobiko, in addition to establishing a public complaints and compliments section, embraced social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for interaction with the public.

These milestones were made possible by the ODPP’s ability to attract development partners to invest their resources in professional skills development and capacity building for staff and other stakeholders.

This resulted in sponsorships for Master’s degree studies and targeted short courses for staff.

In a globalised world fraught with transnational and cross-border crimes requiring international legal cooperation, the ODPP joined regional and international bodies.

TOBIKO

They include the East Africa Association of Prosecutors (EAAP), for which Mr Tobiko is the immediate former president; Africa Prosecutors’ Association (APA); and International Association of Prosecutors (IAP).

These efforts have translated into a significant rise in performance. As the Chief Justice stated in the latest State of the Judiciary and Administration of Justice Report, Mr Tobiko attained the highest-ever conviction rate of 72.4 per cent in corruption and economic crime cases.

Civil society feted the DPP and ODPP in 2015/16 with the Best Public Service Awards while, in 2016 and 2017, the ODPP received the coveted FiRE award as the most improved public sector institution in financial reporting.

CRIME

Despite the remarkable achievements, however, there are instances in which Mr Tobiko could have asserted the independence of his office in the wake of inaction by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). Many a time, the DPP directed the DCI to investigate incidents of crime and forward the files to his office for directions but he was either ignored or there were unexplained delays in executing the directives of the DPP.

The biggest test for Mr Tobiko did, indeed, come with last year’s General Election and the jury is still out since the Elections Offences Act 2016 gives the DPP one year to prosecute the related cases.

Nonetheless, Mr Tobiko leaves office with his head held high. Overall, on a scale of one to 10, I give Mr Keriako Tobiko a score of seven.

Mr Mboya, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, is a former CEO of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).