A Senate oversight committee wants the Advocates Complaints Commission (ACC) disbanded for what they termed as ‘dereliction’ of duty and for failure to investigate complaints lodged against them.

The Senate Labour Committee, chaired by West Pokot lawmaker Julius Murgo, heard how some employees of East African Breweries Limited (EABL) who are the petitioners lodged complaints against Advocate Harrison Kinyanjui before the commission but it failed to act.

Appearing before the committee, the petitioners narrated how they have been seeking justice from ACC but their efforts have been futile.

Led by Lawrence Nduttu, the petitioners told the committee that they feel that the advocate misled them, failed to lodge an appeal as promised, and withheld their money.

Professional negligence

“We went to court because we were retrenched by EABL. We feel we were duped. The Advocate misled us. He told us that he will appeal but he has never appealed. When we went to ACC, and we were told never to go back there again,” said Nduttu.

However, ACC Secretary George Nyakundi explained to the committee that their investigations were restricted to possible acts of professional misconduct arising from the representation by Kinyanjui.

“We informed the petitioners of the need to seek redress in court for alleged acts of professional negligence for proper action and remedies,” said Nyakundi.

The ACC Secretary further told the committee that not all the claims of professional misconduct laid against the advocate could be sustained.

The petitioners had lodged a complaint alleging that he failed to provide adequate professional services despite payment of fees, withholding money collected on behalf of a client, overcharging and failing to behave with integrity in a way likely to diminish public trust in the legal profession.

Conduct of the advocates

The petitioners claimed that the lawyer was negligent in allowing them to execute the Discharge Vouchers, knowing that the execution of the same meant that they could not make any further claims against the defendant.

However, Nyakundi’s response provoked the senators, who questioned why the public entity charged with the responsibility of conducting investigations into the conduct of the advocates failed in their duty.

Senator Gloria Orwoba took Nyakundi to task on why the commission arrived at that conclusion.

“The mandate of the Commission is to investigate. Did you investigate? You have not done that. We can all see that there was possible misconduct on the part of the Advocate,” said Orwoba.

Crystal Asige, the committee’s vice chair, charged that from the report submitted by ACC, the investigations were not done fully to the satisfaction of the petitioners.