The Director of public prosecutions (DPP), Keriako Tobiko, has said that he is not to blame for the delayed trial of the government officials linked to the “chicken” scandal, saying that he has not been furnished with the evidence required in order to institute criminal proceedings on the suspects.
In a statement, Keriako Tobiko maintained that his office “can only institute criminal proceedings based on evidence submitted by the Inspector-General of police or any other legally-mandated investigating agency” as its mandate is to prosecute not investigate.
“The core mandate of the Office of Director of Public Prosecution is prosecution of criminal cases. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecution therefore does not have the legal mandate to investigate criminal cases,” reads the statement.
In February 2015, two former directors of the British Company, Nicholas Charles Smith, 43, and his father, Christopher John Smith, 71, were convicted by a London court. Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins sentenced the younger Smith, a former Sales and Marketing Director for the firm, to a three-year in prison for conspiracy to bribe officials of the defunct Interim Independent Boundaries Commission IEBC and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) bosses to earn printing contracts.
Last week, the two British companies involved in the chicken gate scandal; Smith and Ouzman were fined more than Sh300 million for bribing the Kenyan officials at KNEC and IEBC and public pressure has been mounting on the DPP to follow suit and prosecute their Kenyan accomplices.
The DPP has maintained that the matter is still under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). The EACC on its part has been asking for more time arguing that they are still waiting for evidence from the British serious fraud office, which investigated the matter.
“#ChickenGate is under probe by @EACCKenya.The status will be communicated when I receive the file “read a tweet on the DPP’s handle.
The Kenyan individuals named in the chicken scandal include the the IEBC members Davis Chirchir and CEO James Oswago and former KNEC boss Paul Wasanga.
