The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji has been commended by Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid on his exemplary work in giving justice.
“My special greetings goes to the chief prosecutor of Kenya. Who has made sure that Kenyan people can turn to the courts and receive verdicts while unable to travel, unable to meet. Kenya is not turning back; because even when travel will be safe again, why should someone take a trip for hundreds of kilometres to be heard? This is an encouraging example,” President Kersti said at the UN General Assembly (UNGA)
President Kersti visited Kenya earlier this month where she met her counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta. Both leaders stressed the need for protection of multilateralism on the global stage.
“We are countries that are interested in regional and global peace, countries that are interested in seeing the multilateralism system work, countries that are interested in seeing private sector fully entrenched, creating jobs and opportunities especially for our young people,” President Kenyatta said.
Estonia’s Kersti said, “We are actually together in the (UN) Security Council and we all know why small nations are elected to the security council. This is because we adhere to international rules and regulations.”
Estonia President @KerstiKaljulaid recognises & appreciates DPP Noordin Haji initiatives of going on with prosecutions during the #COVID19 pandemic. The DCI and Judiciary must stop frustrating the DPP as be works hard to jail the corrupt big fish @ODPP_KE #HakiNaUsawa pic.twitter.com/eCIYfDJ4mH
— Cyprian, Is Nyakundi (@CisNyakundi) September 23, 2021
ICT
Estonia is the only country in the world where ICT in preserving people identities works 100 per cent.
President Kersti even spoke on role of ICT in transforming education.
“Estonia is a relatively young nation, but we have focused on building a country where each generation should grow digitally. Crucial to achieving this objective is a high literacy rate, so we have built a highly skilled national teaching workforce and created a learning environment that supports achieving quality learning outcomes for all children. With the launch of the Opic platform, a technology developed by an Estonian ICT start-up – Star Cloud, Kenya is now working towards digitising the school curriculum. This will allow both teachers and students access to online education, providing the opportunity to create an egalitarian school system,” President Kersti Kaljulaid said.
The two Heads of State witnessed the signing of bilateral framework of cooperation on Political Consultations, Health as well as a letter of intent in the area of environment.
The two Heads of States noted with satisfaction the existing bilateral cooperation in various sectors particularly ICT and innovation in which Estonia is widely acclaimed as a global pace setter.
Noordin Haji
Noordin Haji has greatly improved the role of the DPP as he has streamlined the office. He is astute and not a time-waster as he has thrown out several cases that are meant for witchhunt but at the same time nabbed and put to trial some of the so-called big fish.
Recently, the anti-corruption court has convicted former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario to a six-year jail term for abusing his office in connection to the Sh55 million Rio 2016 Olympics scandal.
Wario later paid the fine of Sh3.6 million, but other culprits were not lucky.
Stephen arap Soi, the former National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Noc-K) official, who was the Chef De Mission of Team Kenya at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil, was slapped with a Sh105 million fine or serve 12 years in jail.
The two were found guilty of three and six offences, respectively, in relation to siphoning of millions of shillings meant for athletes who competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Brazil.
Mr Wario was convicted for abusing his office by improperly conferring benefits to three people in the delegation that travelled to Rio in July 2016.
Mr Soi, on his part, was found guilty of six counts of willful failure to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines relating to the management of public funds and abuse of office.
“It is true both Mr Wario and Mr Soi did not receive benefits but the budgets were from the government. The excess of Sh500 million contributed by the government is a huge amount of taxpayers’ money that could have been used in other activities,” said the chief magistrate Elizabeth Juma.
Evidence tabled in court by the 22 prosecution witnesses showed that Mr Soi being the Chef De Mission of Team Kenya in the Olympic games unlawfully approved payment in excess of $151,500 as allowances to the members of the team.
He also authorised the cancellation of air tickets resulting in a loss of Sh9.7 million public funds. In addition, he unlawfully authorised the purchase of unutilised air tickets amounting to Sh19.5 million and allowed payment of Sh4.9 million for the air tickets, which resulted in the loss of public funds.
On abuse of office, Mr Soi was found guilty of conferring a benefit of Sh1.9 million to Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino and Francis Kinyili Paul.
