Governor Joho warns DPP Keraiko Tobiko over relying on activist's dossier

Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho has cautioned Director of Public Prosecution Keraiko Tobiko against relying on information supplied by activist Silas Otuke to open a new investigation into his degree.

Mr Joho's lawyer Paul Buti said that by ordering a new investigation based on a supposed new dossier supplied by Otuke, DPP Keriako Tobiko will most likely to be treated to a cocktail of lies.

Mr Buti said ordering a new probe into this matter violates long established legal and jurisprudential principles that protect litigants from double jeopardy. The lawyer cited several legal authorities and past rulings to demonstrate that no new investigation could be opened in Joho's matter because Otuke had no new evidence.

Otuke has led a campaign to depose Joho from power claiming he has no degree but the governor says a court ruled in his favour early last year before the General Election. A court recently dismissed a case by Otuke challenging the degree on grounds that it had been brought to court before the applicant had exhausted a criminal investigation and last week Otuke wrote to Tobiko seeking a criminal probe on the same.

Late last month the High court in Kampala also dismissed an earlier nullification of Joho's degree saying Kampala University had authenticated the governor's degree in business administration. Buti said it was wrong for the DPP to reopen the investigation into his client's degree because Otuke had no fresh evidence.

The lawyer referred to a judgment which was delivered by Chief Justice Madan which clearly said that it is wrong to reopen investigations into a case which has been concluded by a court. He says that the dossier Otuke had forwarded to Directorate of Criminal Investigation boss Muhoro Ndegwa was part of the documents which had been presented in the cases he had filed in various courts in Mombasa and Nairobi.

"I fervently hope that in his dossier to you, Otuke drew your attention to the short comings that characterised his personality as was concluded by the court," said Butti.