How counties spent Ksh15B on legal fees as services suffered
By Mercy Mwai, August 6, 2025Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has flagged more than 20 counties that spent more than Ksh15 billion on legal fees, domestic travel and subsistence.
In her report for the financial year ending June 2024, Gathungu further highlighted the counties’ over-misallocations, wastage of resources, lack of value for money in the implementation of projects and loss of public funds, thereby negatively impacting development programs.
This, she said, has in turn threatened economic growth and the sustainability of service delivery to citizens.
Reads the report: “Despite numerous reports indicating a lack of accountability and inadequate documents to support the legality and effectiveness in the use of public resources, failure to apply the requisite sanctions has resulted in some accounting officers not adequately accounting for public resources.”
The counties that have been flagged with high legal fees include Nairobi county headed by Governor Johnson Sakaja with Ksh6.2 billion legal fees owed to four advocates, Mombasa’s Abdullswamad Nassir Ksh67.5 million relating to payments of legal fee, Nakuru whose governor is Susan Kihika Ksh22.6 million paid to six legal officers, Kisumu (Governor Anyang Nyong’o) Ksh46 million, Kiambu (Kimani Wamatangi) has court cases amounting to Ksh517.3 million, Gideon Mungaro’s Kilifi Ksh71.6 million was paid to six (6) private legal practitioners, Tana River (Dhadho Gadana) paid Ksh30.7 million which was paid to four (4) legal firms representing the County Executive in various legal cases while Mandera spent Ksh45.5 million on provision of legal services.
In Mombasa, Gathungu has flagged the county over monies spent on domestic travel and substance,s amounting to Ksh17 million, out of which Ksh4.1 million was spent by the Public Service Board, Ksh2.2 million was spent by the education and finance department, and Ksh10.6 million is for economic planning.
Various cases
In addition, she has also flagged Ksh67.5 million relating to payments of legal fees for various cases against the county executive, which have continued to increase due to failure by the county to honour court rulings.
For instance, the county failed to settle the balance of Ksh8 million with a motor vehicle sales company, which had accrued decretal sums, costs of the suit and interests totalling Ksh68.6 million.
In addition, in another case with a contractor, the unpaid amounts have accrued decretal sums, costs of the suit and interests’ costs of Ksh1.2 million after Management failed to settle the contract sum of Ksh854,926 for construction of vertical drains at Kongowea at a cost of Ksh805,432 and construction of drainage system at Msikiti Nuru at a sum of Ksh49,494 in the year 2006.
Reads the report: “The expenditures could have been avoided if the County had honoured the claims after the court rulings. In the circumstances, the value for money on the expenditure could not be confirmed.”
For Nairobi, the report has flagged Ksh6.2 billion legal fees owed to four advocates, which is 29 per cent of the total pending bills of the county executive of Ksh21.4 billion.
Most of the cases relate to unpaid claims for goods/works/services completed by contractors, unprocedural termination of employment contracts, irregular procurement processes and poor contract management.
Reads the report: “The judgments entered against the County Executive resulted in a high cost of litigation and interests.”
The report further shows that the executive had 1,086 ongoing legal cases, which have resulted in several legal claims.
According to the report, if the contingent liabilities crystallise, the County may be exposed to a huge cash outlay, which may affect its ability to meet its obligations when they fall due, thus impacting service delivery capacity.
The report further raises concerns that another 65 cases were assigned to just eight advocates, with the number of cases per advocate ranging from four to twenty.
Reads the report: “Management did not provide an explanation for the criteria used to allocate multiple cases to the eight (8) advocates out of the three hundred and fifty (350) prequalified advocates.”
Further, the report has also flagged the executive for making double payments to suppliers amounting to Ksh140 million.
The county has also been flagged over a number of issues in the payroll as a review of the bank remittance for April, May and June, 2024 revealed that 7,777, 6,123 and 6,803 officers respectively, shared the same bank accounts, agent code and branch code.
The payroll analysis also shows that 74 officers shared the same name, six officers are in the payroll but without salaries, and some employees were overpaid by Ksh5. 3 million, some officers were paid gross salaries higher than the maximum recommended amounts for their job groups, resulting in an overpayment of Ksh8.4 million.
Some officers with a total payment of Ksh148.6 million were not deducted any taxes.
Contract breach
In Kilifi, the county paid Ksh71.6 million to six private legal practitioners representing the executive in various cases, providing legal consultancy services and payment to a firm that sued the County for breach of contract.
For Nakuru, the report has raised concerns over unsupported legal fees amounting to Ksh22.6 million paid to six legal firms.
In Murang’a county, the executive has Unsupported Expenditure on Hospitality, Supplies and Services amounting to Ksh631,884, irregularities in imprest management amounting to Ksh2.7 million, as well as having anomalies in project implementation amounting to Ksh543.4 million.
In Kiambu, the executive has been flagged due to contingent liabilities relating to cases amounting to Ksh517.3 million, irregular payments relating to domestic travel and subsistence allowances amounting to Ksh96.1 million, and irregular payments of Ksh24 million without verification or being audited to confirm their authenticity.
In Kirinyaga, the executive has been flagged over Irregular Payment of Revenue Collector’s Allowances amounting to Ksh4.3 million to revenue officers at various rates for breakfast, working during weekends, working in non-official working hours and taxi services payments, yet there was no approved policy to guide the rate of payment.