LSK Chair Eric Mutua calls for Council meeting after botched AGM

The Law Society of Kenya Chair Eric Mutua has called for a council meeting to discuss the conduct of members suspected to have disrupted an annual meeting last Saturday and follow up on issues that are dividing members.

Mutua said the council will also see how the society can accommodate the opposing voice by OKOA LSK group, who are against the society’s plan to construction of Sh1.2 billion arbitration centre.

However, in a quick rejoinder, the group led by lawyer Erick Sifuna exonerated itself from the chaos that saw last Saturday's meeting adjourned in a huff.

Sifuna said there is need for the society to identify and name people who caused the chaos, adding that criminal proceedings be commenced against them.

The legal professionals' body council will meet Wednesday to discuss when to convene another meeting to conclude the agenda of the abortive March 21 AGM.

The council members, according to a statement sent to the media houses by Mutua, will discuss the conduct of the OKOA LSK group as well as the way forward in accommodating their opposing voice on the centre.

At the heart of wrangles between the council and its members is the Sh1.2 billion arbitration centre project, whose cost Okoa LSK says is bloated.

The mega project has created rifts in LSK, with Mutua maintaining that it is a clean deal.

He blames the Government for fuelling the division with an aim of crippling the lawyers' governing body, but on the other hand, the group majorly led by young lawyers, cite an underhand that might force the members to dig deeper into their pockets to make the centre a reality.

The group claims that forensic audit revealed the cost of the project had sky rocketed in a short time span, by a more than Sh40 million increase.

"I have called for a Council meeting on March 25, 2015 to discuss and call for another general meeting with a view to concluding the agenda of the meeting held on March 21, 2015. Council shall also deal with the conduct of some of our members at the AGM, the best way to implement decisions of general meetings on the LSK International Arbitration Centre and how to accommodate the dissenting voices,'' the statement by Mutua read.

At the same time, Mutua in his statement claimed that the meeting was franked by non-members. He said that some approached the high table chanting political slogans.

The claims by LSK boss raised questions as to how the 88 people said to be non-members managed to access the hotel without being noticed by the security or the secretariat and who exactly had hired them.

"The motion was not passed by the 88 people but was a unanimous decision by the majority members of LSK. How could these people control more than 2,000 members in the meeting? It was the responsibility of the council to ensure that there was security. They also know their members so we cannot be blamed,'' said Sifuna.

The call for another meeting comes even as senior members of the society condemned the conduct of their colleagues.

Wiper Democratic Movement Leader Kalonzo Musyoka condemned the chaotic acts displayed in the meeting, terming the occrences shameful.

Kalonzo, who is also an LSK member, urged the two warring groups to dialogue over contentious issues.