President Uhuru Kenyatta has finally commenced the process of replacing Keriako Tobiko who resigned as the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to take up a cabinet position.
Uhuru nominated Tobiko for the position of Envirionment Cabinet Secretary and he is awaiting vetting by Members of the National Assembly before being officialy appointed.
In a Gazette notice, Uhuru formed a seven-member panel who would be charged with advertising the vacancy, shortlisting, interviewing and picking three highly-qualified names and forward them to the President.
Uhuru will then pick one of the three names and forward it to the National Assembly for vetting before being officialy appointed to the position.
Those appointed include COTU secretary-general Francis Atwoli, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights boss Kagwiria Mbogori, EACC cheif executive officer Halakhe Waqo, Elizabeth Muli representing the Law Society of Kenya, Marryanne Njau from the Attorney-General's office, Lilian Omollo from the Public Service and Kennedy Kihara from the Office of the President.
Without a substantive DPP, suspects of various crimes cannot be prosecuted as one of the functions of the DPP is to direct the police to conduct investigations before hauling a suspect to court to be charged.
The term of office for a DPP is eight years.