NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 – The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has developed plea bargaining guidelines in a bid to expedite trials and shorten the period taken to conclude matters pending in court in part of ongoing reforms within the criminal justice system sector.
A plea bargain agreement is a negotiated pact between an accused person and a prosecutor, where one agrees to voluntarily plead guilty for a concession from a prosecutor.
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji on Tuesday said the plea-bargaining guidelines will help save expenses that would be incurred if a case goes to full trial, save time and allow prosecutors time to focus on high level cases.
“We have already entered into plea-bargaining agreements, we are in the process of negotiating a number of them including a new process that we are exploiting of differed prosecution,” the DPP said during an event to launch plea bargaining guidelines and diversion policy sensitization.
He said this will also help reduce the current case backlog and assist the accused people to avoid stricter punishment.
“Instead of us using a lot of money in investigating, one can come and say, yes I am guilty, I want to enter into an agreement,” he said.
He said ODPP will work on measures to ensure the two avenues are not abused.
With diversion, it is a means of resolving criminal cases by removing the matter from the court systems and according to the DPP “but only in deserving cases.”
“Diversion offers a ‘second chance’ to a person who has committed an offence but accepts responsibility,” he said.
He said diversion will help promote compensation for the victims of crime, reduce the build-up of cases in courts as well as promote quick resolution of cases.
What options are available for diversion?
One will need to submit a formal caution with or without conditions, make an oral or written apology to a specified person or persons or institution, compensation or reparation to the victim among others.
Currently, the Government spends Sh270 to feed one prisoner every day, which amounts to Sh5.5 billion per annum. There are some 55,000 inmates in the country.
The witness protection agency spends a whopping Sh2.5 million to protect a witness every year, costs that stakeholders said will be drastically reduced once the diversion and plea-bargaining guidelines are put to effect.
The DPP said plea-bargaining is open to all cases except genocide and terrorism charges.
Speaking during the Tuesday event, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak revealed that they are already pursuing plea-bargaining agreements more so in recovering grabbed land.
Already, he said they have recovered more than 1,000 acres of land in Naivasha, which belongs to the Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI).
