City Hall’s legal department on the spot over ‘exorbitant’ fees

Nairobi City Hall [Edward Kiplimo,Standard]

NAIROBI, KENYA: A Sh196 million allocation to City Hall’s legal department has attracted the ire of Member of County Assembly (MCA) who now accuse the County executive of inflating the legal fees.

The department is also on the spot after it was accused of paying hefty sums of money to specific law firms contracted to represent the County.

Makongeni ward Mca, Peter Imwatok is opposed to the Sh196 million allocations to the legal department for the 2018/19 year, claiming that the department had been procuring external firms to handle even small cases but ended up paying them exorbitantly.

The ward legislator observed that two law firms were paid approximately Sh35 million after representing City Hall in a case with insurance company that lasted less than 30 minutes.

“The issue is that the lawyers were in court for less than thirty minutes and were asking for a fee of Sh35 and sh45 million for a preliminary case,” stated Imwatok.

The ward legislator claimed that the legal department was a conduit through which top officials fleeced the County of revenue by paying unnecessary exorbitant sums for legal fees.

Last Thursday, Imwatok hard pressed the Justice and legal affairs committee chairman, Jayendra Malde to provide a statement on the County cases particulars for 2018.

Using the recent case where he took the County to court over irregularities in procurement of medical services by AAR as an example, he sought to know the amounts paid or due to be paid to the two firms representing the County.

He further sought to know why the county opted to hire private firms despite existence of a legal department.

Majority chief whip, Chege Mwaura however told off Imwatok as trying to settle his personal scores since he was a litigant in the AAR case and demanded that he declared his interest.

“Mr Speaker, the member is a litigant in the question he is arguing. He should first declare his interest because this house is not a place to settle scores,” he said.

County Attorney, Lydia Kwamboka however refuted the claims by Imwatok saying the County had not paid the firms involved in the AAR case. She observed that the firms had not even brought their fee note to the legal department.

The legal department has however been on the receiving end of criticism. Last month, a public accounts committee report indicated that six law firms were illegally paid Sh480 million and called for the arrest and prosecution of the then finance executive.

The firms were paid the legal fees in the 2015/16 financial year without the necessary budgetary approval and outside the Government’s electronic payment system, IFMIS.