Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has deplored claims by Rift Valley leaders that he and DPP Noordin Haji are targeting Kalenjins in the graft war.
Deputy President William Ruto’s allies claim the war is targeting Kalenjin professionals to scuttle his 2022 State House bid. Nandi senator Samson Cherargei said in Eldoret on December 11 that Haji and Kinoti are playing to the gallery.
But Kinoti said those promoting the narrative of selective prosecution should take their evidence to court in their defence submissions.
“Why are they saying we are targeting people, some of whom we don’t know or have no issue with? Why can’t they give the defence information that they are targeted as a tribe and bring it as a formal argument? We are ready to counter it,” Kinoti said.
Read: We will go full-blast on sensitive files gathering dust - Kinoti
Shouting is useless, the DCI chief said. He said cases before the court are built on facts collected during probes and based on the rule of law.
“When we wake up every morning, we don’t know where we’re heading but are led by the facts we collect in the field. These facts are tested in court.”
Read: Haji, Kinoti to enlist forensic prosecutors for serious crimes
On the arrest of suspects on Friday last week — popularly known as Kamata Kamata Friday — Kinoti said the day has never been blacklisted as free of arrests. He said they had to change strategy because suspects tend to seek injunctions barring their arrests.
Kenya Pipeline and NHIF bosses were the last to be arrested on a Friday. Courts are closed over the weekend so they must cool their heels in police cells until Monday bail hearings.
KPC chief executive and co-accused in the Sh1.9 billion Kisumu Oil Jetty scandal were picked from their homes at night.
Others before them were suspects in the NYS2, NCPB and Kenya Power scandals. Lugari MP Ayub Savula was also nabbed on a weekend over Sh122 million graft at the Government Advertising Agency.
Ex-Kenya Power CEO Ben Chumo and others in the faulty transformers case were also arrested on a weekend. Kinoti said nothing will change on the arrests. He get court orders preventing them from executing arrests, often from people who are not being probed, he said.
“The previous experiences were that when we arrested someone, we were served with court orders stopping the same. So, we followed the saying: If humans learned to shoot without missing, we have to learn to fly without perching,” he said.
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