The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji’s nomination as the Director-General of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) continues to get support from various groups.
The Consortium of Grassroot Civil Society Organisations on Wednesday while presenting a petition to the Public Service
Commission and Parliament laid out 13 reasons why Haji is the right person for the position.
“We have enumerated his achievements for the period which he has been in office and it is our belief as people from the grassroots, that the DPP has been instrumental in providing leadership not only to the ODPP office but also to the nation as a whole,” the petition reads.
The society noted that the DPP in his two decades of public service demonstrated dedication, diligence, and patriotism.
They said Haji demonstrated commitment to his work where he focused on national interests and discharging his obligations.
The organization noted that the DPP went out of its way to reach out to President William Ruto and Opposition Chief Raila Odinga to reach an understanding and ensure that peace prevails during the March demos.
“He has the national interests at heart and he will go out of his way to ensure that the progress and stability of the nation is upheld at all cost,” they said.
In his ( Haji’s) quest to see that Kenyans have easy access to justice, the organizations said the DPP oversaw the establishment of nine regional offices around the country.
The offices are in Nairobi, Nyanza, Western, North Rift, South Rift, Central, Lower Eastern North Eastern, and Coast.
“This has not only brought justice closer to the people but also increased more awareness about the work and activities of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution,” the statement reads further.
They also noted that it was under Haji’s tenure that the ODPP established the Prosecution Training Institute, a first of its kind in East Africa that specialized in prosecution service and capacity building in the criminal justice sector.
The organization also highlighted that Haji took measures to revive cases that were deliberately covered up for many years as the perpetrators walk free.
They mentioned two cases—the killing of a six-month child Baby Samantha Pendo whose life was brutally cut short during the 2017 post-election violence in Kisumu.
Also, the case where Corporal Rashid Ahmed was accused of shooting dead two unarmed people in Eastleigh five years ago.
Explaining why Haji is fit to become the next NIS boss, the organization said that the DPP has overseen a high success rate in the prosecution of corruption cases.
“In 2019, the conviction rate in corruption cases stood at 81.4 percent and this figure went up to 96.3 percent in 2019.”
ln 2020, more than 70 percent of corruption cases were successfully prosecuted.
On March 16, 2023, President William Ruto nominated Haji as the new Director General of the National Intelligence Service.
If approved by Parliament, Haji will return to NIS after six years of serving as DPP.
Before being the DPP, he served as Deputy Director of the Counter Organised Crime Unit within the National Intelligence Service.h
