UPDATE: DPP Noordin Haji has responded to the assertions that his office lacked commitment in the prosecution of the case against 8 suspects in the Solai Dam tragedy.
Speaking to NTV on Monday, Haji claimed that individuals handling the case were compromised stating:
"According to us, some of the individuals were compromised, whether in the Judiciary or the police or provincial administration and even some of the prosecutors. And that is why we had prosecutors coming from Nairobi, who were not based in that jurisdiction. Yet they kept on insisting on prosecuting this matter in Naivasha despite our numerous pleas in the High Court."
"We will appeal this case. And this time around we will put everything on the table so that the public knows," he added.
This came hours after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) was fingered in the collapse of the case against eight suspects in the Solai Dam probe.
A report published by Citizen TV on Monday, February 3, indicates that Naivasha Chief Magistrate Kennedy Bidali while acquitting the eight suspects in the case, accused the DPP of failing to express interest in the proceedings.
The judge decried that on various occasions, he had set a date for the hearing only for the prosecution to boycott the hearings without giving any explanation for the absence.
The magistrate also lamented that ever since the case began, not a single witness statement had been produced in court.
Bilali, while releasing the suspects, indicated that the courts would not be held ransom by the office of the public prosecutor which in his own words had failed to show its readiness to handle the case.
The magistrate also indicated that the suspects had been attending court sessions every day without fail and thus deserved to be set free as that was their constitutional right.
State Counsel Catherine Mwaniki, however, insisted that she would be appealing the ruling.
In the case, the eight suspects are charged with 48 counts of manslaughter and failing to prepare an environmental impact assessment report after a government-sanctioned report blamed them for negligence.
The eight are Vinoj Jaya Kumar, Johnson Njuguna, Luka Kipyegen, Winnie Muthoni, Jacinta Were, Tomkin Odo Odhiambo, Willie Omondi and Lynette Cheruiyot.
The dam collapse led to 48 deaths and massive loss of property for Solai residents.
Investigations by various teams including the Senate and Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) had found the owners of the farm culpable for the tragic deaths.
Investigators also established that the construction of the dam was done by unqualified and ill-equipped staff leading to construction and design flaws that caused the the dam to burst its banks.
