Editorial: AG should take responsibility for Anglo Leasing payments

By Editorial

Is the State Law Office complicit in the Anglo Leasing scandal? Put in another way, through acts of omission and commission, did the Attorney General, Prof Githu Muigai, fail the country in the settlement of the recent Anglo Leasing cases?

There are those, including the Law Society of Kenya, who think the AG should be held liable over the Sh1.4 billion payout to First Mercantile Securities Corporation and Universal Satspace for security contracts that were not delivered.

Or is he the fall guy in an intricate web of deceit by cartels in the corridors of power?

Actually, there is a growing feeling that since his appointment, the professor of law has made decisions that would curry favour with the Executive.

The Government’s Chief Legal Advisor has given advice on two controversial issues in the recent past.

One involved the controversial Standard Gauge Railway tender where he made an about-turn on his earlier advice.

The latest (which has kicked up a huge storm) was for the Government to honour the Anglo Leasing payments after it lost the cases in a London court.

The particulars of the cases and the arbitration in London are coming out. Most of them point to negligence and dereliction of duty on the part of the State Law Office.

In fact, at a press conference on Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta apportioned blame to the office and asked the lawyers there to “up their game”. 

For a country strapped up for cash, paying out Sh1.4 billion should have prompted the AG to swing the axe by now.

He would do Kenya great good if he were to jettison any officers found culpable.  And because the buck stops with him, inaction will mean that he walks the plank.

Already, the LSK is initiating proceedings to remove Muigai and two officials at the State Law Office over the handling of the cases.

LSK is justified in its actions.

But even as he ponders on the action to take, the AG should unmask the identities of the architects of the mega scam.

For indeed, if there were negotiations for payments, with who were lawyers from his office negotiating?

On Friday, the president said there was “clear evidence of misdeed in those transactions” and wondered why they were lost.

This does not inspire confidence in the Office of the Attorney General.

No doubt, Anglo Leasing will be with us for a long time to come, but for now, Kenyans need to know who did what, when and where with who. It is a matter that weighs heavily on the minds and conscience of Kenyans.

If the architects of Anglo Leasing remain at large and nameless, from whom will the billions be recovered?

It was on the AG’s advice that the Government undertook to pay this huge amount against services that were never delivered and there is real danger that others will be emboldened to make similar claims against the Government.

For Githu, the hard questions will not go away.