Trader criticises lawyer’s conduct
What you need to know:
- MPs, however, took the businessman to task, questioning why he did not report the matters to relevant authorities. Some members also accused him of using the committee to fight his wars with Mr Abdullahi.
A former ally and a former client of lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi Thursday accused him of dishonourable conduct.
In separate petitions to a House team, businessman Brian Yongo and former National Bank of Kenya employee Leonard Kamweti also challenged Mr Abdullahi’s membership to the Judicial Service Commission.
The two told National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee that Mr Abdullahi was unfit to serve on the commission.
Mr Yongo went as far dragging in the name of Chief Justice Willy Mutunga— claiming that his appointment was influenced by the lawyer.
He claimed Dr Mutunga was coached by Mr Abdullahi and senior counsel Paul Muite during their meeting at Fairmount Apartments.
He claimed Mr Abdullahi was admitted to the bar on a false presentation, and that he was acting as an advocate and a member of the JSC in contravention of the Advocates Act.
His first petition, dated June 25, to the Speaker of the National Assembly on Mr Abdullahi’s professional and academic qualifications refers to communication between the Law Society of Kenya and lawyer Nelson Havi on July, 27 2012. Mr Yongo said it had been established that Mr Abdullahi neither attended pupillage nor was he issued with a certificate of completion of pupillage.
He said the certificate purportedly signed by lawyer Peter Simani, now deceased, on November 26, 1992, was null and void as Mr Simani had no practising certificate in 1992. Mr Abdullahi presented the certificate to support his application for admission to JSC.
It also emerged that the businessman has fallen out with the lawyer over ownership of a 20-acre piece of land in Lang’ata- Karen, among other business deals. Mr Yongo claims in a letter to the committee that the lawyer had attempted to con him of his portion of the land.
MPs, however, took the businessman to task, questioning why he did not report the matters to relevant authorities. Some members also accused him of using the committee to fight his wars with Mr Abdullahi.
“I reiterate my petition is not pedestrian,” he said. “Whether it is personal vendetta with Ahmednassir will not change the facts here,” he said.
On his part, Mr Kamweti accused Mr Abdullahi of unlawfully obtaining and distributing a confidential lawyer-client communication for the lawyer’s personal benefit. Mr Kamweti claimed the action cost him his banking job.
He requested to be informed how a House committee, then chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba, recommended Mr Abdullahi’s appointment to JSC despite his objections. The matter is also before the LSK disciplinary committee and the hearing has been set for December.
