Nairobi County Losing Billions To Law Firms Through Suspicious Payments, Auditor General

• Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has put Nairobi county on the spot over questionable expenditure on the payment of lawyers
• According to the report, Nairobi county owes 11 law firms KSh 10.7 billion and 121 other law forms KSh 10.2 billion
• Embakasi East MP Babu Owino questioned why the county's legal fees could reach such amounts when there existed a county's attorney office

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised the alarm over billions of pending bills owed to lawyers by Nairobi County.

How much does Nairobi county owe lawyers?

In her 2022–2023 audit report, the auditor revealed that the county has a staggering 832 legal cases. As a result of these cases, the county owes 11 law firms KSh 10.7 billion in legal fees.

The auditor was stunned that the legal fees exceeded the county's own source of revenue.

The amount owed to 11 law firms represents 50% of the pending legal bills. The county owes another 121 law firms KSh 10.2 billion.

This revelation comes against the backdrop of claims by some senators that governors are collaborating with law firms to raise fee notes for court cases, some of which are choreographed.

How much does Nairobi owe suppliers?

The pending bills issue at City Hall remains controversial, especially after former governor Mike Sonko formed a pending bills committee in 2018 under the leadership of constitutional lawyer Patrick Lumumba.

The committee reduced the pending bills the county owed to different service providers from KSh 89 million to KSh 25 billion.

However, the County Assembly never adopted the report, and the pending bills have continued to soar, currently standing at a whopping KSh 100 billion owed to contractors.

Babu Owino speaks about Nairobi's legal expenditure

In a recent press conference, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino called for Governor Johnson Sakaja's impeachment over alleged fraudulent payments for unexplained contract works.

The MP raised concerns over the legal fees owed to lawyers, yet the county has the office of the County Attorney.

Babu asked, "How do these figures get this high when we have the county attorney's office?"

Since taking over, Sakaja has prioritised payment of legal fees and was once flagged by the Controller of Budget over a requisition to release KSh 1.4 billion in legal fees owed to lawyers.

The current governor appointed a 12-member committee to review and conduct thorough scrutiny to verify the KSh 2.1 billion in legal fees owed to law firms.

Senior Advocate of the High Court, Kamotho Waiganjo, is leading the committee. The committee has not yet released its findings.

Paying huge sums of money to lawyers and law firms is not a concern for Nairobi alone.

Millicent Omanga decries Nairobi's expenditure on lawyers

The auditor has put Nakuru, Mombasa, Siaya, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Isiolo counties on the spot over similar questionable payments.

This revelation irked Nairobi woman representative in 2022 under the United Democratic Alliance, Millicent Omanga.

In 2023, the Daily Nation reported how Nairobi county departments traded blame over the controversial approval of payment of KSh 1.4 in legal fees.