East African prosecutors decry threats from drugs, corruption

Prosecutors in East African nations on Wednesday decried immense threats from corruption, drug and corruption kingpins.

Under their umbrella body the East African Association of Prosecutors, prosecutors from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi admitted that their work is facing increasing threats.

Speaking during their annual meeting in Naivasha, Kenya, the Association's president Keriako Tobiko said that for years prosecutors had been forgotten in terms of remuneration and security.

Tobiko, also Kenya's Director of Public Prosecutions, said there was urgent need to address the welfare of prosecutors and improve their working environment.

"Prosecutors are under threat due to the nature of their work and have been forced to share public service vehicles and even estates with the drug kingpins that they are prosecuting," he said.

In Kenya, Tobiko said the multi-agency organization had frozen property worth billions of shillings belonging to corruption suspects involving those adversely mentioned in the recent graft saga.

"We have come to learn that the suspects are using the crime proceeds to bribe their way out, subvert investigations and compromise judicial process," he said.

Tobiko also expressed his concern over the rise in wildlife crime in the region, adding that demand for wildlife products was also on the rise.

Tanzania's Director of Public Prosecutions Biswalo Mganga said they had so far frozen and recovered assets worth billion of shillings from suspects involved in wildlife crime.

"We are concerned by the increase in the use of our port in Dar es Salaam as drugs conduit as we dig deeper into the masterminds behind the drug and wildlife trades," he said.

Uganda's Director of Public Prosecutions Mike Chitiba said the prosecution and jailing of all the suspects involved in the 2010 Kampala terror attack was due to support from regional countries.

"Despite getting all those involved jailed, we lost one of our prosecutors involved in the case and its time we addressed the security of our prosecutors," he said. Endit