NAIROBI, Kenya, April 11 – The Nairobi City County government currently owes Sh10 billion in legal pending bills to various law firms despite clearing Sh287 million.
According to Nairobi City Governor Johnson Sakaja, as of August 2022, the county had 1,100 pending cases filed by various parties, of which 273 had already been resolved.
“The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) indicated in the report that the Nairobi City County Government owed Sh10B. The county has to date paid out a total of Sh287M to various law firms,“ said Sakaja.
The Governor, however, expressed his government commitments to settling the bills, stating that the current pending bills were inherited from the previous administration and not bills incurred during his term since assuming office.
“To address the problem of huge pending bills in unpaid legal fees, I directed the County Attorney to appoint a Legal fees assessment. My administration has a responsibility to settle these obligations once the authenticity of these bills is determined,” he added.
The city governor also defended his administration’s move to further equip the office of the county attorney, including hiring new lawyers, in order to stop overreliance on external advocates, a decision derived during the 19th County Executive meeting.
Sakaja said his administration is also in advanced deliberations with the Salaries Remuneration Commission (SRC) to ensure that lawyers working for Nairobi County are well remunerated to attract competence.
“Fifty lawyers will be employed to boost internal capacity with a view of handling all legal matters internally and saving costs incurred from engaging external counsel,” he stated.
He assured that his administration has put in place measures to deal with pending bills, including fresh assessments of the various fees, handling of new matters by internal counsel, and recruitment to enhance internal capacity.
He also warned internal advocates against the alleged award of overexaggerated and bloated fees, affirming that his government has embarked on conducting investigations to eliminate them.
“I want to assure Nairobians that the necessary legal and disciplinary action will be taken against any advocate found to have awarded Law firms fees that were not commensurate with the work done,” Sakaja warned.
