The powerman at AG’s office

When Attorney-General Amos Wako called a press conference last Wednesday to respond to a visa ban slapped on him by the US government, there was a small sideshow that was quite telling.

As Solicitor-General Wanjuki Muchemi walked into the room with the press conference under way, it was evident from the body language of fidgety staff members present that the man attracts either awe or fear.

The most dramatic of spats with his officials was with his former personal assistant Apollo Mboya. Mr Mboya described Mr Muchemi in court documents filed in March last year as a “hot temper” and overreaching his mandate. The Sunday Nation has seen documents in which the Solicitor General in turn says that his personal assistant was disrespectful and breaching civil service conduct in the execution of duty.

The two had fallen out so badly that Mr Mboya went ahead to privately prosecute his boss but the AG stopped the prosecution under powers granted to him by Section 26 of the Constitution and the accusations were never tested in the courts.

Separately, Mr Mboya, who is now the chief executive at the Law Society of Kenya, wrote to the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission asking the body to investigate his boss but this move also did not succeed. Kacc said it did not find sufficient ground to launch investigations.

The Solicitor-General has been known to call the President during meetings when he feels the input of State House is vital. This is the man who Mr Wako has to work with as he discharges his functions at the State Law Office. Some of his professional colleagues describe him as an astute lawyer and a professional to boot. Senior officials who have worked with him have publicly complained of his overbearing character while conducting affairs at the AG’s chambers.

When Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko took office in May 2005, his predecessor Philip Murgor gave him a treatise on how to go about his job – right in front of the cameras. Mr Tobiko diplomatically responded and said that he did not need advice on how to carry out his job.

Shortly after, a simmering row between him and Mr Muchemi blew into the open. Mr Tobiko wrote to Mr Muchemi to protest interference with his office. The row is reminiscent of another earlier one between Mr Muchemi and Mr Murgor, which prompted Treasury to order an audit of Sh280 million USAid-funded reforms at the DPP’s department.

Reforms programme

The conflict between Mr Tobiko and Mr Muchemi came to the fore soon after the former took over the reins of DPP and complained publicly that forces at the AG’s office were frustrating his efforts to implement the reforms programme.

“Conservative elements within the State Law Office who interfered with and obstructed Mr Murgor from implementing the reforms programme are now back,” Mr Tobiko told about 40 prosecutors during a symposium on the Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector reform programme at Whitesands Hotel, Mombasa at the time.

“But I have been assured by the AG and the highest office that the reform programme will go on.” He vowed that he would not be cowed: “I will go ahead with the reforms agenda, whether I am intimidated or not.”

Mr Tobiko’s protest came after a State Counsel, Mr Oriri Onyango, was nominated to attend the Commonwealth law ministers meeting in Ghana. Mr Onyango did not travel after Mr Tobiko complained that he had not been consulted.

According to the 1995 schedule of duties at the AG’s office, the Solicitor-General is responsible for processing applications for clearance to travel out of the country. He is also the accounting officer for the State Law Office, giving him direct charge over finances.

The DPP is answerable to the AG for, among other duties, the training of public prosecutors and their appointment or gazetting, dealing with questions pertaining to the administration of criminal justice and coordinating and supervising research.

In his complaint letter to Mr Muchemi, Mr Tobiko recounted that on October 7, 2005, he had received a letter dated October 5 and signed by deputy SG Muthoni Kimani, authorising Mr Onyango to travel to Ghana as part of the Kenyan delegation to the Accra meeting between October 16 and 20 of the same year.

Was baffled

“I was baffled,” Mr Tobiko says in the letter dated October 11. “I still am. At no time was I requested as head of this department to nominate the said or other officer to attend the meeting. Even after your office or whoever nominated him made that decision, I was not accorded the basic courtesy of being informed about it.”

Before his removal, Mr Tobiko’s predecessor had been engaged in a long turf war with Mr Muchemi. On October 24, 2004 , Mr Murgor wrote to Mr Muchemi accusing the administration of blocking a State counsel, Mr Edward Mwangi, from travelling to Europe with a team investigating the Anglo Leasing scandal.

“Despite the authority given to Mr Mwangi, the trip was frustrated by your office/officers,” Mr Murgor wrote. The Anglo Leasing investigation is of such great national and international importance that the AG had directed that a prosecutor accompany the probe team.

Mr Murgor’s complaints continued into 2005. On January 18 the same year, he wrote again to Mr Muchemi after Mr Oriri Onyango was sent to the Netherlands. “This is to seek your explanation for the interference with my department,” Mr Murgor wrote. The two were still at loggerheads when Mr Murgor’s tenure came to a dramatic end.