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Decisions made more than ten years ago by the Attorney General nominee Dorcas Oduor have come back to haunt her during her vetting by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment.

Oduor was put to task by the leader of the minority party in the National Assembly Junet Mohamed to explain the circumstances under which she declared the cases of the post-election violence as having insufficient evidence to stand prosecution.

She defended herself, stating that the decisions were not entirely made by her but by a 20-member task force which included civil rights organisations.

“I was expected to look at the evidence through the lens of a prosecutor, which requires me to be sure that before I can recommend prosecution, I have sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest and I have a reasonable prospect of conviction,” Oduor responded.

Giving reasons why the cases could not be prosecuted in 2012, the then Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Oduor said many of the cases did not have witnesses, statements from victims were taken a year after the crimes were committed, or no DNA evidence was collected.

The violence saw more than 1300 people killed, hundreds of thousands displaced and several others injured.

Oduor who chaired a task force charged with hastening the post-poll violence cases lamented the investigations of police officers into the murder cases, stating that the police investigated them using the criminal procedure code and the penal code, limiting the scope for prosecution because the police did not find out who was in command of or responsible for attacks.

She also remarked at the time that in most of the sexual and gender-based violence cases, DNA and other forensic evidence were not taken or preserved, making the cases difficult to prosecute.

Witness statements were also recorded a year after the crimes, making them vague.

“I used the law as it was and applied it to the circumstances,” Oduor told the Parliament Committee on Appointment on Friday, August 9, 2024.

Who is Dorcas Oduor?

Oduor is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya who holds a Masters’ of Arts in International Conflict Management from the University of Nairobi, a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree (UoN) and a Diploma in Law from Kenya School of Law.

Oduor was nominated by President William Ruto to be the Attorney General of Kenya, after moving Justin Muturi to the Ministry of Public Service.

Before her nomination, she was the secretary of public prosecutions at the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.

Her previous positions were the deputy director of public prosecutions, Head of Economic, International and Emerging Crimes Departments) (ODPP), Deputy Chief State Counsel and as a State Counsel for the (department of Public Prosecution) at the then Office of the Attorney General.