CRIME FIGHTING DUO SEEKS KENYA’S FIRST TOP LEVEL GRAFT CONVICTION
NAIROBI - Noordin Haji, head of public prosecutions in Kenya, is the urbane son of one of the ountry’s most prominent families eorge inoti born in the slums rose from burly beat op to head the powerful police
in estigation department
Together, they are building corruption cases against top enyan officials. his past week, the finance minister and other officials were charged with financial misconduct, marking the first time police have arrested a sitting finance minister in a nation notorious for graft.
oth men credit their success in part to an unlikely friendship forged while working together in the field.
“Prosecutors and investigators never worked together, but since me and inoti came into office that has changed,” Haji said in an interview at his airobi office, where leather-bound law books and the graceful arabesques of slamic art line the walls.
“We do have a personal relationship as friends,” said the trim, silver haired 6 year old, appointed Director of Public rosecutions last ugust. “We are able to sit down and agree without having turf wars.”
he first big case the two worked on together last year was the alleged theft of nearly 00 million from the ational outh ervice. inoti hand picked officers he could trust to work on the case, aji said.
rosecutors charged suspects, including a principal secretary, the most senior career bureaucrat in a ministry. he case against them is still ongoing, but five banks have already been fined nearly
million for failing to report suspicious transactions.
ot everyone from the police and prosecutor s offices liked working together, said aji. Those who didn’t were edged aside.
“We had to build a team that would gel,” he said.
Kinoti, who bears the scars of numerous shoot outs including one where gangsters left him for dead - said police were willing to work with Haji because of his experience and demeanor, honed during 18 years in the enyan intelligence service. nlike most senior officials, aji never stood on ceremony, he said.
“ e s the first can say who is a polished field officer ... He knows the pains we undergo in the field,” said inoti, . “ e s so humble ... t has won all my officers.”
HISTORIC CORRUPTION
uch pronouncements may be met with scepticism from enya s embattled anti corruption campaigners, who have seen years of official promises to tackle graft come to nothing while police clubbed and gassed demonstrators demanding change.
“ he superlatives are flowing fairly thick, and we’ve been here many times before,” said prominent campaigner ohn ithongo.
President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to tackle graft when he was elected in 0 , but results have been slow. Corruption continues to drag down economic growth and investor confidence.
fficials are wary of quantifying the total loss, but a former head of the government s anti-graft watchdog told Reuters in 0 6 that around 6 billion, a third of the annual state budget, was lost to graft in Kenya every year. ithongo said the charges against Finance Minister Henry otich, which stem from an investigation into the misuse of funds in two dam projects, were a good first step. e noted Kinoti has a reputation as a courageous and honest cop.
After he was appointed head of the irectorate of riminal nvestigations in anuary 0 , Kinoti swiftly disbanded the lying uad, a unit formed to combat robberies and car-jackings but accused of orchestrating them.
“They thought robberies (on the roads) would rise,” laughed inoti. “ nstead they stopped ”
or three months, inoti said, his phone bu ed with influential Kenyans seeking to present discreet gifts. ut, mindful of the atholic priests who raised him, he filled his office with crucifixes and refused to pick up.
THEFT AND BLOOD
Haji trained as a lawyer, but after a short stint as state counsel in the attorney general’s office he moved to the ational ntelligence ervice. e worked undercover against slamist militants and before becoming deputy director for organized crime.
That’s where he began working with Kinoti, he said, supplying him intelligence for investigations into organized crime. aji said he was impressed with inoti s work ethic and hands-on management.
oth men understand that corruption kills, he said. t helped al habaab militants kill people at the iverside office and hotel complex in anuary. They bought fake car license plates, and some had multiple identity cards, aji said.
He has seen bloodshed like that firsthand. e was among the shoppers who barricaded themselves into bathrooms when al habaab stormed the Westgate mall in 0 , killing 6 civilians. aji called his boss to feed him information about the weapons they were using, but said the response was problematic because enya s security agencies weren’t working well together.
Security footage showed soldiers looting shops as dead civilians lay in pools of blood. o one has been fired or prosecuted for the looting.
“Corruption exacerbates everything,” Haji said, his face falling into the stern lines familiar from press conferences. “ t made the terrorists able to exploit our witnesses in Kenya very easily. t let criminals operate with impunity.”
e became prosecutions chief because he was tired of observing problems with no chance to fix them, he said.
“With intelligence ... you can only advise or warn,” he said. “You don’t have the executive powers.”
MINISTER CHARGED
enyan ministers have been charged before. former water minister was accused of abuse of office in 0 0. The investigating body was disbanded; he died in bed aged .
n 0 , two former finance ministers were charged after hundreds of millions of dollars were paid to foreign companies, including the ritish firm nglo Leasing Finance, for services ranging from passports to naval ships and forensic laboratories. othing was delivered. he court cases are still ongoing.
overnment officials say such cases are complex, the courts overburdened and evidence often tampered with. ampaigners say it s a matter of political will.
Kinoti and Haji hope for a quicker resolution to the case against otich and others, including an Italian construction boss.
A specialized anti-corruption court is now hearing the case, although other judges had delayed the investigation, inoti said. “ hey refused us warrants,” he said. “ y the time we are succeeding, the documents have ... disappeared.”
Haji said such delays should be less of a problem when more anti corruption courts become operational by the end of the year.
Many Kenyans, however, won’t believe there’s a war on graft until they see top officials in jail, said Boniface Mwangi, an anti corruption campaigner who has been arrested more times than he can remember.
“We’ve seen high-level arrests,” he said. “ ive us convictions, and then we will start to celebrate.”