Dorcas Oduor, the nominee for the Attorney General position declared her net worth at Ksh85 million.
Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Appointments for vetting on Friday, Oduor revealed that the wealth mainly comprises tangible assets such as houses and a car.
"The total family net worth is Ksh 85 million made of land, houses and a car," she stated adding that since her late husband died, she has not distributed the wealth to her children.
Oduor has a rich background in the legal profession. During the vetting, she said she will tap into her three-decade experience to advice the government on how to navigate the legal terrain.
“My bounding duty would have to be the delivery of sound, honest and objective legal advice to the Government in accordance with constitution of Kenya and my oath of office.”
Her legal career commenced in 1992 when she was admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
She practiced as a court room lawyer for eight years. Notably, she was chosen to assist Kenya in prosecuting the 1998 Bomb Blast Victims Case in New York.
Later she was employed in the State Law Office rising from the position of the State Counsel to the position of the Secretary Public Prosecutions in 2017.
“On Government losing cases, there are reasons why people lose cases. It could be that you have a bad case, you will lose it. It could be that you have bad or inadequate representation. You could lose a case for any other reason,” she said noting that it would be AG’s responsibility to relook the cases before they begin.
“We need to relook the offences so that we decriminalise the petty offences. Most of those in custody were young people and they were poor. Is cash the only way we can secure the attendance?”
In response to Suna MP Junet Mohamed who asked about her unfruitful attempts to be appointed a judge, the AG nominee lamented that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) did not give her reasons behind her failed bid.
“I believe it was not my time and I was not the only who was not successful, they don’t give reasons for rejecting you,” she noted.
The AG nominee found herself on hot seat about remarks she made when she was the chair of a task force investigating the post-election violence. She supposedly reported that there's no evidence to charge certain people who were involved in the post-election violence.
“I chaired a task force as a prosecutor and I was expected to look at the evidence with the lens of a prosecutor, which requires me to be sure that before I can recommend prosecution,” she defended herself saying that she did not find sufficient evidence for conviction.
Commenting on the issue of Bills declared unconstitutional, the AG nominee said she would carry out research to find out why they've been declared unconstitutional. “I'll make sure that as the AG, whenever we come up with a Bill it meets the constitutional requirement as provided.”
