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An anti-corruption court yesterday recommended the introduction of an office in the Judiciary tasked with establishing whether evidence obtained by police investigators is sufficient to secure a conviction.

The proposed office, to be known as “Office of Pre-trial Judge” would peruse the police file and scrutinise available evidence before any suspect is arraigned.

The intention is to bring to an end abuse of the criminal justice system by police investigators and prosecutors and reduce case backlogs.

The recommendation stemmed from the trial of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua over the alleged fraud of Sh7.3 billion.

The Director of Public Prosecution withdrew the case citing insufficient evidence and frustrations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

But when the DCI failed to provide the evidence, the DPP sought to withdraw the case prompting the court to make the recommendation for establishing an office to avoid the abuse of the court process.

“In my view, Parliament should consider passing the necessary legislation to establish an office of pre-trial judge. That office should subject activities of the DPP, DCI and any other investigative authority as relates to intended charges to scrutinise investigations, determine the number of witnesses bonded based on the quality of testimony and set down the timelines of each case. When such issues are determining the decision should be binding and full disclosure before suspects are followed for plea taking and commencement of a trial,” Senior Principal Magistrate Victor Wakumile said.

Wakumile also proposed the introduction of a personal prosecutorial and investigative liability policy to protect junior officers working with anti-crime State agencies from acting on illegal orders from their bosses.