The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji will now be able to withdraw any case at will thanks to a new court ruling.
In her ruling, Chief Magistrate Roseline Oganyo revealed that the DPP's decision would only be challenged in a case where adequate evidence proved that the move would infringe the privacy of a party to the case.
Otherwise, Haji has the powers to throw out a case without offering an explanation to the parties involved or providing evidence to the court.
The ruling comes as part of a case in which Nairobi businesswoman Agnes Kagure had sued lawyer Guy Spencer Elms over the ownership of a Karen land belonging to the late Roger Bryan Robson.
Kagure argued that she had paid ksh100 million in cash in 2011 for the ownership of the land while Elms claimed that the deceased wanted the property sold and proceeds donated to environmental initiatives.
Elms was charged in 2017 after detectives from the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) claimed that he had forged a signature on the will.
Daily Nation reported that Oganyo postponed the case three times in 2018 after Kagure testified using documents her team had not supplied to the defendant.
In February 2019, however, after furnishing the defendant with the required documents, Haji reportedly asked the court to halt the case claiming new evidence emerged that damaged the possibilities of prosecuting Elm's case.
According to reports, the evidence included an examiner's report that refuted the forgery claims that had earlier been presented to the court.
In the court papers, Kagure demanded that the DPP should consult her before withdrawing the case arguing that his office went behind her back.
The magistrate, however, ruled that the DPP was allowed by the Constitution to withdraw any charges against a suspect before judgement was delivered.
