Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji has effectively exonerated Deputy President William Ruto from the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal.
The DPP refuted allegations that the case was targeting the Deputy President saying the scandal was about a national project in which loans were misappropriated.
“The Kimwarer and Arror dam scandal has nothing to do with the Deputy President. It is about loans that were taken and wrongly used,” Haji said.
The DPP who was speaking during an interview on K24 TV on Sunday further stated that scandal was under Treasury which is under the Presidency.
“Treasury is not DP’s office and Rotich was appointed by the president,” he said.
Haji also rubbished claims that his office favours proponents of the Uhuru-Raila handshake while prosecuting corruption cases.
He reiterated that his office has remained impartial while executing its mandate. He cited the case of Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong, a supporter of the Handshake whom they are keen to convict.
“If you look at the case of Governor Ojaamong, he has been put on his defence because of the evidence we have presented. Kenyans will see eventually that we have a watertight case,” he stated.
DPP Haji maintained that his office is not politically inclined. “I am not political and I don’t care what they (politicians) do out there. Yes there is political pressure on me, investigators and even the judiciary but we are not selective in our work,” he stated.
“We do our work as prosecutors diligently. We largely depend on the evidence before us,” he added.
The DPP also explained that the low number of convictions does not mean that the war against corruption is not being won.
“Conviction is only one element. You need to remember that we have recovered proceeds of corruption and in the process of prosecuting disrupted graft activities,” he said.
“Since January 2018, there have been 98 convictions and 106 acquittals representing a 48 percent conviction rate.”
Haji added that there are 317 pending corruption cases with Sh3.5 billion recovered since January 2018.
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