President William Ruto has maintained the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) is autonomous following the recent withdrawal of various criminal cases against persons allied to him.

Ruto responded on Monday after Raila Odinga on Sunday accused him of influencing the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to drop graft-related charges against his close associates.

The President denied Raila’s allegations that DPP Noordin Haji has been receiving instructions from State House to drop the cases.

“We have not and I have told the Director of Public Prosecutions that we have not asked the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office to do any favour for us in return for funding of their office,” Ruto said.

The president said the DPP is discharging his mandate independently.

“It is their right to discharge their mandate as an office, a mandate given to them by the constitution of Kenya and we have no trade-offs and we will have none.

“We want them to discharge their responsibility, we will do ours and we must be founded on a firm strong foundation of the rule of law,” Ruto insisted.