Nairobi County is once again under fire, this time over KSh10.7 billion paid out to just 11 law firms. This massive amount was supposedly for legal services, but questions are now being raised over whether these payments were even necessary or legal.
The County Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee has begun an investigation, and what is already coming out paints a very ugly picture of leadership under Governor Johnson Sakaja.
The money trail is shocking. In one example, the county had a land dispute with Yellow Horse Inn Ltd. At first, it demanded land rates from the company. Then it made a complete U-turn and claimed ownership of the same land.
The law firm representing the county, Momanyi and Associates, initially billed KSh80 million. But instead of giving valid reasons or presenting proper paperwork, they later accepted KSh34 million.
There was no contract, no invoice, no formal letter nothing to justify this huge payment. It seems like money was simply moved from the county account into private hands without any accountability.In another suspicious case, Gitunda Mariti and Company Advocates charged KSh100 million for a corruption-related case.
That figure was later slashed to KSh67 million and paid out on June 20, 2023. Again, no one can explain why the amount changed, or why it was even that high in the first place. Worse still, another law firm was given KSh30 million with absolutely no legal documents to back the payment.
These are not small amounts of money. This is public money that could have gone to fixing roads, building schools, or improving health services but instead, it looks like it was wasted or stolen.
Ward representatives now believe many of these cases were completely made up. They suspect that rogue county officials may have worked with some law firms to create fake lawsuits just to steal money.
Instead of protecting the county’s resources, these officials may have been part of a wider scheme to drain them. Even lawsuits that had some truth behind them seem to have been blown out of proportion to benefit a few individuals.
Ngara MCA Mwaura Chege, who chairs the investigative committee, is now digging deep into the matter to see just how far the rot goes. Baba Dogo MCA Geoffrey Majiwa has not held back, slamming the county for wasting resources on what he called “pointless and costly” legal battles.
He pointed out that some of the land in question had already been set aside for development projects. Yet instead of moving forward with plans that could help the people of Nairobi, Sakaja’s administration chose to spend billions on lawyers and lawsuits.
Governor Sakaja, who has often portrayed himself as a visionary leader, cannot run away from this scandal. These payments happened under his watch. The excuse of blaming previous administrations no longer works when billions continue to disappear right under his nose.
This legal fees saga is just one more example of how Sakaja’s leadership is failing, and it raises serious questions about whether he is genuinely interested in public service or just presiding over organized theft.
