300 Police officers seconded to DPP office

By Peter Opiyo

About 300 police officers will be seconded to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to help with handling of criminal cases.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko said the officers have been vetted and found to be competent to work in the department. He said the department is trying to phase out instances where police officers also double as prosecutors.

Tobiko said the names of the officers seconded to the department are being gazetted individually and that they would soon start working at the department.

He was speaking during a Trial Advocacy Training for 32 newly hired prosecution officers at Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Nairobi.

About 90 percent of prosecutorial cases are handled by the police and the DPP said it has been found that they lack requisite training to handle complex cases.

"We are finalising secondment of police prosecutors and about 300 police officers have been found to be competent to cross over to the directorate of public prosecutions," said the newly appointed DPP.

Tobiko said for the office to deliver satisfactory services there is need to enhance its capacity, saying having adequate prosecutors is not enough. At the moment the department only has 83 prosecuting counsels out of the required 1,000.

The department is also faced with attrition as staff look elsewhere owing to poor terms of service but he said the department is in talks with the government to address the matter.

"We are engaged with the government to ensure that the terms of service of staff is improved particularly to be in line with those at the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission," said Tobiko.

With a budgetary allocation of Sh355m in the 2011/2012 financial year, Tobiko said the office would be under-funded at a time more resources are needed, especially during this time of implementation of the Constitution.

The DPP also warned against politicising the fight against crime and called for support from the two principals, the public and the media in the fight against crime.

"We must not politicise the fight against crime. This has been a problem in prosecution. Crime has nothing to do with tribe, it is to do with individuals," said Tobiko.