New High Court ruling cuts DCI's powers

The High Court ruled that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) will no longer have powers to craft charge sheets and take people to court.

It will now be the job of the DCI to collect evidence while the Director of Public Prosecutions will take over all criminal cases.

A Constitutional Court ruled that any criminal proceeding carried out without the consent of the DPP is "unconstitutional, illegal, unlawful, null and void".

A case before the court made this ruling possible after it emerged that the DPP had not approved the charges in the case against the acting chief executive officer of National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority, Geoffrey Sang.

Abuse of power

"... any (criminal) proceeding before a Court of law commenced without the prior consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is not only illegal but unconstitutional too," the Constitutional Court said.

According to the presiding Judge, Justice George Odunga attempts by DCI to charge a person with a criminal offence without the consent of the DPP "amounts to an abuse of his powers."

The court ruled that the "DPP is not bound to prosecute simply because the investigating agencies have formed an opinion that a prosecution ought to be undertaken".