Guidelines on the Director of Public Prosecution’s Decisison to Charge: Continuity Amid Discontinuity of Political Rationales
8 Pages Posted: 30 Jan 2021
Date Written: November 20, 2020
Abstract
This article is in some parts descriptive and in some analytical. I endeavor to unpack the key insights and highlights of the DTC norm. To do so, I probe a number of issues. Does the premise and promise of DTC norm reflect a broad public discourse of the necessity to end the culture of impunity in Kenya through criminal accountability processes? Does the DTC norm embody or reflect the tenets of criminal justice system (CJS) enshrined in Art 157(11)? Is the DTC constitutionally maximalist or minimalist in its approach to the public authority of criminal prosecution? In terms of normative and institutional practices, does it address the “dynamic of selectivity”. Finally, can the DTC claim the moral high ground that it seeks or it will remain tokenistic, an escalating commitment to hypocrisy─validating, as it shouldn’t, the politically contingent approaches of previous public prosecutions? This article proceed as follows. In the next section I highlight the key elements of the guidelines.
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