New bail rules on the way for terror suspects

Kenya: Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has set up a committee to prepare guidelines on how courts should grant bond and bail to criminal suspects particularly those accused of terrorist activities.

This follows accusations that the Judiciary is frustrating the war on terrorism by granting bail to suspects.

But even as he announced this yesterday, Mutunga warned that courts would not act on emotions or shoddy investigation and prosecutions. Investigators and prosecutors must do a thorough and comprehensive job and present the facts and evidence before courts.

“Judicial officers will not grant bail or convict on the basis of emotions, but rather on the basis of a rigorous presentation of evidence and facts,” Mutunga said.  “Article 49 of the Constitution does not use the word ‘compelling’ for ornamental purposes. It could have stopped at the ‘reasons,” he added.

Article 49 of the Constitution provides the right to bail for all criminal suspects unless there are compelling reasons to deny them. “I hope that the prosecution service understands that they have to do much more to move the court to grant bail or bond. Incomplete investigations, lazy approaches to prosecution only lead to judicial determinations which will end up frustrating everybody and the public.”

Mutunga was speaking when he opened a meeting of top security officials and judges called to harmonise the war on terror.

The meeting at the Judiciary Training Institute was a follow up to  another one held between the Judiciary and security organs on Monday.