Nairobi — The nominee for the National Intelligence Service(NIS) Director General nominee Noordin Haji now intends to boost the criminal justice chain by ensuring that obtained intelligence can be converted to evidence so as to tighten prosecution.
During his vetting before the Foreign and Defence Committee, Haji explained the shortfall of using intelligence from National Intelligence Officers has derailed some of the critical cases including the Shakahola incident.
"We will be able to transform the criminal justice system to convert intelligence into evidence because I think the intelligence that is there cannot be used in courts. However, it can be acted on so that it can be changed into evidence," he stated.
Haji who is slated to take helm from retired DG NIS Philip Kameru, dismissed the notion that the intelligence service failed Kenyans on the starvation cult that has so far claimed more than 200 lives.
"I think there's misconception, NIS didn't give timely evidence on Shakhahola and as DPP we were able to prosecute some of these cases including that of Mackenzie. Unfortunately, he was granted bail and it was not adequate to safeguard from the atrocities," he said.
The DPP told the Nelson Koech (Belgut) led committee that nation should have a paradigm shift on investigating religious extremism by not only focusing on Islamic religion but casting the net wide on all religious denominations.
"The paradigm shift that has come is that extremism can emerge from any religion. The posture should be that there can be potential threat in any religion," he said.
The nominee found himself on spot during his vetting as he tried to wriggle himself out from controversial decision he made during his tenure as the Director of Public Prosecution.
Haji was hard pressed to explain his motive for withdrawing high profile cases which is said to have taintained his public integrity.
The DPP explained that he was necessitated to withdraw the cases due to the threshold of evidence tabled after it emerged that in some cases it was forged.
"In some of the cases, the investigating officers themselves submitted affidavits to say that they produced evidence that wasn't complete and some were tampered with," Haji stated.
Haji pointed out that according to the criminal justice system he didn't solely withdraw the cases saying the Judiciary had the final nod on whether the charges on some cases could be withdrawn.
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"The constitution is clear that the magistrate and the courts play a role to oversight and see that the reasons by DPP are sufficient and can be allowed. It's the court that can decide and their instances that the court has refused," said Haji.
He defended himself from the accusations of receiving the appointment as the spymaster as a reward for withdrawing the high profile including the money fraud case against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
"I didn't have the final say in all of these cases.The constitution has put in place safeguards to ensure they are no abuses of court processes.The court are there some can go and challenge the ODPP and table evidence that I have been compromised,"Haji stated.
Haji convinced the National Assembly committee that his integrity is top notch following his 5-year tenure as the DPP that has received criticism from civil society who have accused him of biasness.
The Director of Public Prosecution told MPs that in the 20-petition filed seeking to remove him from office were thwarted by the courts as they were orchestrated out of witchunt.
"I had to make that decision because its guided by the rule of law and ensures there's no miscarriage to the rule of justice. I don't regret making that decision. I was threatened by 20 cases in three years during my tenure," Haji said.
