The Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto has revealed how the government may end up losing billions of taxpayers money through the Attorney General's (AG) office.
According to Ogeto, the continued underfunding of the AG's office often sees the state ending up without being represented in some court cases due to the shortage of state counsels.
Speaking in Eldoret, Ogeto noted that losing such cases sees the courts award the petitioners claims running into billions of shillings that the government is forced to pay.
[caption caption="Attorney General Paul Kihara Kariuki "]
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In particular, the Solicitor General (SG) indicated that they had requested the parliament to allocate them Ksh11.5 billion but only Ksh5.5 billion was allocated.
For instance, Ogeto noted that "In a region like North Rift with eight counties we have only three state counsels serving eight counties and dealing with more than 3,000 cases" compared to the more than 15 state counsels required.
Revealing that AG's office plans to devolve its operations by opening offices in all the 47 counties within the next two years, Ogeto indicated that they are located in only ten counties making their service delivery an uphill task.
"We will soon be engaging the parliament so that we can be allocated funds to carry out the expansion plans we have," he concluded on the strategy to address the serious underfunding causing an acute shortage of staff.
Underlining the importance of legal advice in winning court cases, a role played by the AG's to the government, Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi on Sunday noted that cheap counsel is often expensive in the long run.
[caption caption="Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto leaving Milimani High Court in the past"]
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"Always go for the very expensive lawyer... Nothing is more expensive than a cheap lawyer," Ahmednasir concluded - astatement that may sum up the plight of the AG's office.
