Haji in the eye of storm as Tuesday vetting date with MPs nears

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji. POne of the most hard-hitting assessments of his tenure was issued by a group of organisations that have petitioned EACC not to clear him for his spymaster appointment.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

When he was a year into his tenure as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), lawyer-cum-detective Noordin Haji was a darling of many.

The “big fish” quaked in their boots as high-profile corruption cases sprung up constantly. Impressed, some entities nominated him to be the recipient of the Transparency International (TI) Kenya’s leadership and integrity award in 2019 in the category of State officers.

Judges who were vetted the nominees were not an easy lot to please. Drawn from independent commissions, enforcement agencies, professional bodies and civil society, they could only award the most deserving. And all these felt Mr Haji deserved it.

Fast-forward to 2022. A series of decisions by his office five years in are now being questioned. And the TI award was withdrawn on Friday. And as he heads to the National Assembly for vetting as the next director-general of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Tuesday – following his nomination by President William Ruto on May 16 – Mr Haji will be a man bogged down by high-profile claims.

One of the most hard-hitting assessments of his tenure was issued on Wednesday by a group of organisations that comprise the TI Kenya, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Institute for Social Accountability, and Inuka Kenya ni Sisi! The four bodies have petitioned the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) not to clear Mr Haji for his appointment, claiming that he has fallen short on satisfying the integrity requirements in the Constitution.

“(We pray) that EACC makes a finding that Mr Haji is unfit to hold office on the basis of Chapter Six of the Constitution of Kenya,” they said while asking EACC to consider their prayer when reporting to the House on the standing of Mr Haji.

The National Assembly’s departmental committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations will handle Mr Haji’s vetting.

Some of the accusations the societies made against him are also contained in a court filed in Nakuru seeking a declaration that Mr Haji is unfit to be the country’s spymaster. In the case, filed on May 19 by lawyer Khatherine Cherotich, also raises the integrity question, which Mr Haji has termed baseless.

Some of the cases cited by Mr Haji’s critics involve personalities like Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Gender Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa, Michael Kamau and Ken Tarus .