The ongoing war on corruption being spearheaded by the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti was met with mixed reactions by politicians with those allied to Deputy President William Ruto arguing that the DCI is biased in the manner with which it is handling cases.
Some leaders even argued that the DCI does not have powers to investigate corruption cases and as such should desist from making arrests or prosecuting suspects.
Well, it seem like the politicians were all wrong as proved by Attorney General Paul Kihara and EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak.
The duo have told off politicians claiming the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has no powers to investigate corruption cases.
They 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.