Legal fees in 31 counties go up by Ksh21b, AG Gathungu reveals

Legal expenses recorded in 31 counties surged by a whopping Sh21 billion in just one year, the Auditor General has revealed.

The Auditor General in the latest audit report revealed that claims by lawyers shot up from Sh2.1 billion recorded in the 2020/2021 financial year to Sh23.8 billion in the next financial year, 2021-2022 raising the red flag over the payments.

 The Auditor also raised concerns over the use of private legal services and the management of legal expenses in County Governments in the last three financial years.

 While in law, the County Attorney is recognised as the principal legal adviser to the county government, the Auditor General raised concerns about the use of private lawyers and law firms by county governments to fight their legal battles.

The report analysed the legal services provided to County Executives between the financial year 2020/2021 and 2022/2023 and noted that counties had continued to engage private law firms to offer legal services despite establishing the Offices of County Attorney.

Public Entity

 It was also noted that the counties did not adhere to the requirements of Section 16 of the Office of the County Attorney Act, 2020 which requires a county department or public entity established within a county executive to seek for written approval from the County Attorney when engaging the services of a consultant to render any legal services to the county.

 The report stated that the County Executives have been using direct appointment methods of procurement without meeting the conditions specified in the procurement law.

 On the issue of pending bills, the office noted cases of duplicated fee notes being included in the list of pending bills. They gave an instance of the financial year 2022/2023, Taita Taveta County Executive included in its list of pending bills, an amount of Sh3.2 million which had already been paid during the year under review.

 They also noted cases of court awards against County Executives which had not been settled attracted further interest and penalties thereby compounding the already dire problem of high pending bills.

Public funds

 In the 31 counties reviewed by the office, three counties, Tana River, Lamu and Elgeyo Marakwet turned out to not have established the Office of the County Attorney.

 In the 2020/2021 financial year, Nairobi led in the use of public funds in private legal services by Sh836.6 million, followed closely by Machakos County by Sh607.7 million and all the other counties adding up to Sh2.1 billion.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, the amount queried in the use of private legal services amounted to 23.8 billion, an increase by more that 20 billion from the previous financial year. Nairobi also led in this year’s total by Sh21.2 billion in undisclosed legal expenses.

ready dire problem of high pending bills.

Pending bills

 In the 2022/2023 financial year, the amount used decreased by Sh1.4 billion to Sh22.4 billion from Sh23.8 billion in the 2021/2022 financial year, with Nairobi taking the lead with Sh. 21.3 billion.

 Nairobi County has been constantly increasing in the last three years, with the highest level of pending bills with more than Sh20 billion

 The auditor general’s office says that counties hiring private legal services is a hotbed for corruption and wastage, and is urging the Judiciary to assist in providing evidence of the court cases and assessing the validity of the fees charged.