Attorney General tells Ruto and his Tanga Tanga team to keep off DCI Kinoti

Attorney General Paul Kihara Kariuki and EACC boss Twalib Mbarak yesterday accused Ruto and his allies for trying to prevent the DCI from investigating corruption. Appearing before the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, the duo said the law mandates the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to probe all forms of crime. “That really is a misunderstanding probably from lack of adequate education,” Kihara said. The AG was responding to questions by committee chairman William Cheptumo and Bureti MP Japheth Mutai over remarks by some quarters that the DCI has taken over the roles of the EACC. “To what extent do you think the DCI has the legal mandate to investigate matters touching on corruption?” Cheptumo asked. Ruto and the Tanga Tanga team, a group of politicians supporting his 2022 presidential bid, have attacked DCI George Kinoti over the directorate’s involvement in the investigation of graft cases. The DP went ahead to ask the DCI to leave corruption-related cases to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which, he said, is mandated by law to investigate economic crimes. Ruto allies are on record saying that the DCI is being used by some politician to target certain individuals and communities in the renewed war on graft. “The fight against corruption must proceed on the basis of the correct information and by competent institutions that have the constitutional mandate and the institutional capacity so that we can have results,” Ruto said in Ainamoi constituency last month. Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot said during the event, “The constitutionally mandated body to fight corruption is the EACC. The work of DCI is to investigate Belgut MP Nelson Koech said they no longer had confidence in the DCI and demanded that all economic crime matters before the DCI be handed over to the  EACC. But Kihara faulted the DP and his allies and cited Section 35 of the National Police Service Act which mandates the DCI to investigate all forms of crime. Mbarak said told the committee that the DCI can perform all the roles that the commission performs as provided for in law. “DCI is mandated to conduct investigations on crime. It (the law) has never classified which type of crime, and economic crime is part of crime. So technically, I think they can do what we do but we can’t do what they do,” Mbarak said. The EACC boss said that his commission has enjoyed a good working relationship with the DCI and criticised politicians for politicizing the graft war.