Duale rekindles Githu and Tobiko tussle over extradition powers
From left: Attorney-General Githu Muigai and Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko. Photos/FILE
What you need to know:
Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale is seeking amendments to the Public Prosecutions Act 2013, which grants the DPP Keriako Tobiko powers to deal with extradition proceedings.
The Bill has rekindled a row between the office of the DPP and Attorney-General Githu Muigai over handling of extradition cases.
The two offices were late last year engaged in a public spat over the handling of extradition cases and proceedings.
The government has renewed the push to strip the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of powers over the extradition of Kenyans wanted for criminal charges in foreign countries or repatriation of fugitives hiding in the country.
Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale is seeking amendments to the Public Prosecutions Act 2013, which grants the DPP Keriako Tobiko powers to deal with extradition proceedings.
“The Bill proposes to amend the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution Act by removing the management of extradition proceedings from the purview of the functions of that office,” he said in a memorandum accompanying the Bill.
The Bill has rekindled a row between the office of the DPP and Attorney-General Githu Muigai over handling of extradition cases.
“I am surprised that this amendment has been re-introduced in the Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendments) Bill, 2014 when we had agreed to rest the matter for the time being until teams from my office and that of the AG sat down to made comprehensive Constitutional reviews of the issue,” Mr Tobiko told the Business Daily on Tuesday.
The two offices were late last year engaged in a public spat over the handling of extradition cases and proceedings.
The DPP took issue with the planned changes that were first introduced in the lapsed Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendments) Bill 2013 and accused Prof Muigai of conspiring to “sneak” the management of extradition proceedings from his office back to the office of the AG.
“I take the proposed amendment as an attempt to prejudice the determination of constitutional petitions relating to extradition,” Mr Tobiko said in a letter to Mr Duale last year in reference to similar amendments.
“Extradition proceedings are by their nature criminal proceedings which under Article 157 of the Constitution are solely vested in my office. The AG cannot handle criminal proceedings and any attempt to confer such functions upon his office would be unconstitutional.”
The Bill is being reintroduced after a similar proposal was rejected last year. The differences between the DPP and the AG came at a time when Mr Tobiko’s office was handling high profile extradition cases against the former Nambale MP Chris Okemo and former Kenya Power boss Samuel Gichuru who are wanted by the Island of Jersey to face charges of money laundering. The cases are pending in court.
He was also handling the case involving fugitive Yagnesh Devani — who is wanted for the multi-billion Triton fuel scandal.
The AG’s office, however, objected to the DPP’s office’s participation in the cases arguing that it did not have explicit provision to conduct extradition proceedings.
“Public international legal processes only recognise the office of the AG and it is evident that the request was made to my office. The only basis upon which the DPP became seized of the matter is that at the time, public prosecution was a department at the AG’s office,” Prof Muigai said last year.
Apart from Mr Devani who is holed up in Britain, the DPP wants televangelist Gilbert Deya, who is facing charges of child abduction, sent back from London to face the law.
