The president of the court of appeal William Ouko has said that the judiciary will no longer be used as a scapegoat in the fight against corruption. He asked the investigative bodies to provide water tight evidence to warrant a conviction.
He said that the judiciary has often been accused of recusing people charged with corruption on account of lack of evidence.
Read:Corruption Has Grown By 240% Since Jubilee Government Took Power – PS Kibicho
He said that the judiciary determines cases on evidence therefore investigative bodies should up their game during investigations. He said that anything other than that that would be a dumping exercise to blame the judiciary for lack of convictions
“Present a case that meets the criminal threshold and expect a conviction. Anything else is a dumping exercise aimed at passing the blame to the courts,” William Ouko told magistrates and Kadhis meeting in Naivasha.
Justice Ouko said that the judiciary depends on evidence presented and in adversarial systems the burden for criminal offenses lie with the prosecution who more often than not present weak cases.
“No one should expect a conviction if there is no incriminating evidence because, as judicial officers, we are guided by two tests in a criminal trial. The evidence that is required to validate a criminal conviction in an adversarial legal systems like ours must be one whose standard is beyond reasonable doubt,” he said
This comes in the wake of senior government officials being arrested and charged for loss of huge sums of money and abuse of office.
Do you have a story you want told? Do you know of a sensitive story you would like us to get our hands on? Email your news TIPS to Editor@kahawatungu.com
Email your news TIPS to Editor@Kahawatungu.com — this is our only official communication channel
