City Affairs

City Hall owes lawyers more than its own revenue - Auditor General

City Hall in Nairobi.(Photo: Handout)

By Eastleigh Voice Reporter | Monday, April 8, 2024

The report indicates that out of a legal list of 832 cases, 11 advocates are owed more than Sh10 million.

The Nairobi County government is once again in the spotlight over its pending legal fees.

In a report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, it has been revealed that the Governor Johnson Sakaja-led administration owes a staggering amount of legal fees, surpassing its revenue collection.

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The report indicates that out of a legal list of 832 cases, 11 advocates are owed more than Sh10 million.

“Analysis of the revenue against the legal fees revealed that 11 advocates out of a legal list of 832 cases are owed a total of Sh10.7m," reads part of the report.

This is contained in the report of the Auditor-General on the County Executive of Nairobi for the Financial Year that ended on June 30, 2023.

The legal fees owed to the 11 lawyers exceed the capital’s own source revenue of Sh10.6 million.

The 11 lawyers represent 50 per cent of the legal pending bills, while a further 121 lawyers are owed Sh10.2 billion by the county.

The payment of legal fees has remained a thorn in the flesh for previous administrations at City Hall.

Nairobi County owes contractors and suppliers more than Sh100 billion in pending bills.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu. (Photo: OAG)

The report raises questions on why City Hall prioritised the payment to the legal firms while other bills are long overdue.

In January 2022, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja appointed a 12-member committee to review and verify the Sh2.1 billion legal services pending bills owed by the county.

The Committee on the Review, Scrutiny and Verification of Pending Legal Bills is led by Advocate Kamotho Waiganjo as the chairperson and Sylvia Mueni Kassanga as vice-chairperson.

On June 27, 2023, the Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o declined a request by City Hall to approve Sh1.3 billion to pay legal firms for services provided.

Instead, she demanded various clarifications on the requisitions.

The CoB said given the schedule of 19 firms to be paid does not include the invoices' dates and therefore, it is difficult to ascertain whether they are pending bills or related to works done and invoiced in the current financial year.

“Please, therefore, revise the schedule to include the date of the invoices and attached copies of the payment vouchers for the 19 firms,” she said in a letter to CEC in charge of Finance and Economic Planning Charles Kerich dated June 27.

“Please provide clarifications on the above issues to enable my office to facilitate the requisitions soonest.”

City Hall had sought COB approval to release the money.

However, the county had not provided the Pending Bills Payment Plan which could enable the matching of individual payees to the requisition.

“Further, it is difficult to match the proposed payments with the Pending Bills Report earlier presented to this office,” the letter read.