The Director of Criminal Investigation George Kinoti has been under constant attack from the team Tangatanga.
Team Tangatanga aligned to the Deputy President William Ruto have been questioning the mandate of DCI Kinoti to investigate corruption cases.
The Attorney General Paul Kihara and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chief executive Twalib Mbarak yesterday told off politicians claiming the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has no powers to investigate corruption cases.
The duo said DCI and EACC have powers under the Constitution to investigate on any matter that borders on criminality including corruption.
Appearing before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, the duo said unlike what is going on in the public domain, the law allows the DCI to also undertake investigation on serious economic crimes in the country.
In particular, Kihara said under the Constitution and National Police Service Act, the DCI is mandated to carry out investigations on corruption matters to safeguard public money.
The Director of Public Prosecutions is mandated to ask the DCI to carry out investigations on matters of a criminal nature, Kihara said.
“The DPP has powers to instruct the DCI to investigate any matter that is of criminal nature and the DCI must comply. At the end of the day, corruption is criminal, there is no corrupt act that is not criminal,” he said.
Twalib said the DCI and his office have a cordial relationship and are working together to ensure they win the war on graft.
The duo made the remarks after members of the committee demanded to know whether the DCI has powers to carry out investigations graft matters.
The sentiments by the duo comes at a time when Deputy President William Ruto and his allies want the DCI to keep off corruption investigations.