State offices differ over legal council

Attorney-General Githu Muigai and the office of the Deputy President have clashed over a report implicating the Council of Legal Education in massive irregularities.

Prof Muigai wants the matter closed, rendering the report by the Efficiency Monitoring Unit (EMU) quashed, but the Deputy President’s office said the unit was within its mandate and overruled him.

This was revealed at a meeting between the council and the Public Investments Committee, which is looking into the matter.

Council chief executive Kulundu Bitonye told the MPs that Prof Muigai had withdrawn the report from the unit and asked the committee not to use it as a basis for questioning the institution. But committee chairman Adan Keynan refused, saying “We don’t want to believe what Prof Bitonye is telling us”.

In a letter tabled before the committee, council chairman Fred Ojiambo is said to have written to the monitoring unit on August 24 last year noting earlier correspondence on the matter. He appeared to have been under the impression that the “allegations and complaints that may have led to the particular investigation/monitoring in question by the EMU have been found to have lacked neither foundational substance nor justifiability”.

Monitoring unit secretary Vincent Nyagilo, however, disagreed, saying his earlier letter did not state that the allegations lacked a foundation and justification.

“In terms of EMU mandate, we submit our findings and recommendations to the relevant authority for necessary action, which in this case, is the Attorney-General. That constituted formal closure since we had discharged our mandate,” said the secretary.

After the damning report was released, the council said the monitoring unit had no powers to start any investigation on an independent State agency.

IREGULARITIES IN RECRUITMENT

The monitoring unit’s report claimed that there had been irregularities in recruitment, salaries and academic standards at the council, which runs the Kenya School of Law. It recommended that the council stops employment until issues around Prof Bitonye are resolved, which Treasury endorsed.

The council, however, went ahead and advertised for eight senior posts.

Prof Bitonye was accused of employing his relatives, irregularly changing his job designation, arranging renewal of his term beyond retirement age and drawing irregular allowances and an irregular salary.

The monitoring unit recommended that he be surcharged around Sh5 million in irregular salary increments, Sh900,000 in illegal allowances, monies paid as duty for his car and for abusing his office.

It accused the council of making the cost of legal training unnecessarily very high.