The DPP wants police to conduct further probe into the CJ’s claims. Photo/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 15 – The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has ordered the police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to conduct a further probe into the a threatening letter that was sent to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga in February and submit fresh findings within two weeks.
This was in response to a report by CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro who had said his officers had closed the investigations file citing lack of evidence.
In the letter sent to Muhoro and copied to Police Inspector General David Kimaiyo on April 12, DPP Keriako Tobiko accused the CID of conducting sloppy investigations noting that they did not exhaust all the pertinent leads.
He particularly observed that the police failed to establish the links between the Twitter accounts @makau_mutua and @MungikiPress and the letter, which could have helped trace the authors.
Tobiko said that the police should have investigated the owners of those Twitter handles in addition to obtaining their statements.
“Such statements might have established the source considering that the version twitted from that account (@makau_mutua) bore material differences from the original,” argued Tobiko.
“It is not explained why further investigations were not conducted to establish the ownership of the twitter account @MungikiPress from which the message referred to by the Chief Justice was sent on February 24,” he added.
Tobiko also took issue with the probe team for not doing enough groundwork to support claims that the letter’s postage stamp was erased at the point of collection.
He explained that the witness statements did not support these allegations and there was therefore need to conduct more investigations.
“The author is not disclosed by the evidence in the file. There is no record of inquiries conducted to this end. Furthermore, a reading of the relevant witness statements does not and cannot logically lead to this conclusion,” countered Tobiko in the letter dated April 12.
The DPP further dismissed claims by the CID that the letter could have originated from the Judiciary itself noting that no evidence was given to this effect.
He observed that the CID should not have closed their probe before investigating this suspicion to the end.
“If it is true as claimed by the team that the Judiciary staff originated the offending letter, why shouldn’t they be investigated?” he posed.
Tobiko also faulted the CID for failing to indicate what kind of action they had taken, in the past, when Judges had been attacked. Mutunga had claimed that more than five Judges have been attacked.
“There is no indication in the file whether such attacks were investigated by the police and those responsible brought to justice. It is important to note that the CJ draws a connection between the threatening letter and the said attacks on Judges,” he argued.
He further urged the police to boost the security of all Judges.
Tobiko further asked the Head of Civil Service Francis Kimemia to issue a written communication clearly indicating public officers who need clearance from the Office of the President before leaving the country, if he hadn’t already done so.
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