MATONDO Mukulu yesterday refused to comment on scathing remarks made by his ex-boss, the former Public Defender Earl Witter, about his qualification for the post to which Arlene Harrison Henry has been appointed.

“I won’t respond to anything of the sort. I will not respond to anything,” Mukulu, who had been acting in the post of public defender since Witter’s retirement in April, told the Jamaica Observer.

“Usually I would [respond], but I won’t respond,” he said and apologised for not commenting on the issue.

Witter, in a letter dated December 1 to Mukulu and copied to Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and Speaker of the House of Representatives Michael Peart, accused Mukulu of waging an “unbecoming campaign” to win appointment to the substantive post by charting his own course.

He also expressed regret at recommending the young lawyer to act as public defender following his retirement in April, calling it an “egregious blunder”. Witter, 70, also felt that Mukulu, at 38, was too young to have the security of tenure granted on the Public Defender (Interim) Act.

“You need to be made aware not only that ambition is made of sterner stuff, but that the public defender, being a commission of Parliament, is no low-hanging fruit waiting to be plucked by you. Further, that it would likely require the most weighty and cogent reasons for investing someone so youthful, with lack of experience, both in law and in life, as you are, with the protection of security of tenure laid down by section 5 (4) of the (Public Defender Interim) Act,” Witter told Mukulu.

Last week, the Jamaica Observer was told that the reason given by the Public Services Commission (PSC) for the rejection of Mukulu was a lack of experience and his youth. Mukulu was called to the Bar in 2002 and has had over 10 years experience in public and constitutional law.

He took over as deputy public defender in January this year, replacing Lorna Errar who suddenly resigned from the office last year, along with Director of Investigations Rochelle Gayle.

Earlier this month, the Observer reported that both Harrison Henry and Mukulu met with Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and were informed of the PSC’s decision.

Public reaction to Mukulu’s brief stint in office had suggested that he would have been retained in the post, as his proactive style had been welcomed as a refreshing change compared to the approach of his predecessors.

He tackled a number of issues, including discrimination against disabled persons, the confiscation and donation to charities of street vendors’ goods, the manner in which people considered unfit to plea are detained at the island’s two major prisons, and claims of human rights breaches from people affected by fires at the Riverton City dump in Kingston.