Dorcas Oduor will become the first woman Attorney General after Parliament approved her nomination yesterday.

MPs also endorsed the nomination of Beatrice Askul as the East African Community Affairs Cabinet Secretary, setting the stage for their swearing-in this morning.

Lawmakers unanimously supported a report from the Committee on Appointments that found the duo appropriate to serve in President William Ruto’s broad-based Cabinet.

Askul, a longtime ODM party official, will be the first Cabinet secretary from Turkana County.
Accomplished women.

Ahead of the vote, National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed, described the two as accomplished women leaders who showed expertise and experience in different areas of public service.

“The nominees demonstrated an understanding of the mandates of the office to which they were being nominated,” Junet said.

“They articulated clear visions for their offices. Askul is a career civil servant with vast experience on social governance of arid and semi-arid lands. Dorcas is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya with over 15 years experience and a distinguished legal practitioner.”

In her contribution, Muhia Wanjiku (Kipipiri) lauded President Ruto for giving the two women an opportunity to sit at the high table where key governance decisions are made.

“As women of this country, we are very proud we can produce two great women who will be able to steer this country to progress,” Wanjiku said.

Senior prosecutor

For her part, Lilian Gogo (Rangwe) said: “I support the committee for the good work. I want to implore Parliament that has the power of the [purse] to give them resources to deliver. They are elegant and well exposed on what they were being asked during vetting.”

The Committee on Appointments, chaired by Speaker Moses Wetangula, had unanimously approved the two nominees.

“This House approves the appointment of the following persons: Beatrice Askul Moe as Cabinet Secretary for East African Community Affairs and Regional Development and Dorcas Oduor as the Attorney General of the Republic of Kenya,” the committee’s report said.

Before her appointment as AG, Oduor was a senior prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). She is a distinguished jurist and a senior counsel who earned her accolades in litigation, draughtsmen and legal advisories.

Oduor was admitted to the bar as an advocate of the High Court in 1992, having attained her basic degree in law in 1990 and obtaining a postgraduate diploma at the Kenya School of Law a year later.

Long experience

Oduor has 30 years’ experience in law, serving in the State Law Office and the ODP, where her official title was deputy director of public prosecutions.

Her legal career started in 1992 when she was admitted to the role of advocate of the High Court where she was employed to serve at the state law office, rising from the position to that of the secretary public prosecutions.

In 2017, she was posted to the ODPP after the delinking of prosecutions from the Office of the Attorney General following the adoption of the 2010 Constitution.

“I have gained extensive experience and expertise throughout that period. Not only have I been involved in many complex courtrooms and high-profile cases, I’ve also made significant contributions in the formulation of policy and other protocols relevant to the rule of law,” she said during her vetting.

Legal concepts

She noted that high legal concepts are still evolving through the growing jurisprudence in Kenyan courts and internationally.

“The position of Attorney General calls for far much more than just that of an advocate for one client. The public interest demands of the office the duty to respect, advocate and operationalise at all cadres of the administration,” Oduor noted.

When she worked at the State Law Office, she said, she was assigned to participate in the reparations case in New York that arose from the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi.

Oduor previously served as head of the Economic, International, and Emerging Crimes departments at the ODPP, and as deputy chief State counsel and State counsel in the Department of Public Prosecutions at the Office of the Attorney General.