Create special courts to prosecute graft cases, says Mutua

Governor Alfred Mutua now wants the Chief Justice to establish a special court division to exclusively deal with corruption cases.

The Machakos governor says the judiciary should also be adequately empowered with personnel who will ensure that corruption cases are dispensed with swiftly as a deterrent measure to deal with runaway graft in the country.

Citing the recent purge on suspects of Kimwerer and Arrror dams scandal, the governor, Mutua said systems should be put in place to ensure speedy dispensation of justice in order to recover billions of shillings lost through blatant theft and dubious deals.

He said Kenyans were losing patience with corruption cases which were taking for ever to sail through to conclusion.

"To achieve this, the judiciary will need to deploy enough officers dedicated only to the trial of corruption cases. This means, judicial officers gazetted to hear corruption cases should be freed from the normal judicial work so as to concentrate and hear these matters speedily," Dr Mutua said at a press briefing at his Mavoko office in Athi river.

He urged Parliament to facilitate the arrangement through adequate allocation of financial resources to actualize the plan. "We can't expect the judiciary to deliver when it is constrained financially. We should not be slashing the judiciary's budget and yet make demands for expeditious hearings," he said.

"I therefore urge the Chief Justice to clearly state the capacity he requires so that Kenyans can dialogue and facilitate judicial operations in the war against corruption. I urge this so that the war on corruption from reporting of incidences, investigations, trial of suspects and recovery of stolen resources runs smoothly at all levels," said Dr Mutua.

Mutua also said the same way election petitions are heard continuously and with a set period, so should corruption cases.

"As a people we expect that this current case of Arror and Kimwarer dams will be concluded by October 31st this year and the other ongoing cases of NYS saga can be concluded by August, 2019," said the Maendeleo Chap Chap party leader as he concluded his speech.