Power of the AG to appoint public prosecutors.
The Kenya criminal procedure code sec.85 (1) gives the Attorney-General power to appoint public prosecutors for Kenya or for any specified area thereof.
Sec 85 (2) gives the Attorney-General, power to appoint any advocate of the High Court or person employed in the public service, to be a public prosecutor for the purposes of any case.
Powers of public prosecutors.
Sec 86 outlines the roles of the public prosecutor and states:"A public prosecutor may appear and plead without any written authority before any court in which any case of which he has charge
is under trial or appeal; and if a private person instructs an advocate to prosecute in any such case the public prosecutor may conduct the prosecution, and the advocate so instructed shall act therein under his directions.
Withdrawal from prosecution in trials before subordinate courts.
This section answers questions such as can a prosecutor withdraw from a case?At what point can he withdraw and what happens to a case when the prosecutor withdraws from it?The answers can be found in section 87 of the criminal procedure code which provides that:
In a trial before a subordinate court a public prosecutor may,with the consent of the court or on the instructions of the Attorney-General, at any time before judgment is pronounced, withdraw from
the prosecution of any person, and upon withdrawal -
(a) if it is made before the accused person is called upon to make his defence, he shall be discharged, but discharge of an accused person shall not operate as a bar to subsequent proceedings against him on account of the same facts;
(b) if it is made after the accused person is called upon to make his defence, he shall be acquitted.