Sang lawyer sued over Sh4m award

Photo/FILE Mr Katwa Kigen, who is Mr Joshua arap Sang’s lawyer, is being accused by one of his former clients, former South Mugirango MP James Omingo Magara, of abuse of office.

By SAMWEL KUMBA skumba@ke.nationmedia.com and JACOB NG'ETICH jngetich@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, June 13 2011 at 22:30

A lawyer representing one of the International Criminal Court suspects is facing integrity charges at the Advocates Complaints Commission.

Mr Katwa Kigen, who is Mr Joshua arap Sang’s lawyer, is being accused by one of his former clients, former South Mugirango MP James Omingo Magara, of abuse of office.

The former MP accuses the advocate of failure to inform him that he had been paid by the electoral commission Sh4.17 million as costs of the court case.

Mr Kigen represented the former MP in a petition that he lost, but the electoral commission was ordered to pay him the costs of the suit.

Mr Magara claims the advocate received the cash, but did not forward it to him.

“I later discovered that the payment was made through Mr Kigen who did not inform me and has since refused to give me the money yet I don’t owe him any legal fees,” Mr Magara told the complaints commission.

Mr Kigen said he had the money but wanted pending issues resolved first.

“I am holding the money until my legal fees are cleared as provided for in law,” he said. He argued that they had not agreed on the final legal fees he would charge.

Following the court’s decision in Kisii on the petition, Mr Kigen is said to have been paid Sh4,166,070 in May last year, being payment of the legal fees to Katwa & Kemboy Advocates that represented Mr Magara.

“I had paid Mr Kigen over Sh3 million as his legal fees and what the Interim Independent Electoral Commission paid was supposed to indemnify me.

“He sat on the money until I inquired from the electoral body in September, only to be given documents showing he was paid four months earlier,” said Mr Magara.

He submitted to the complaints commission papers showing that he had paid the said amounts to Mr Kigen.

Mr Magara wants the commission to charge Mr Kigen with abuse of office and strike him off the advocates roll.

In response, Mr Kigen said he was not guilty of the charges and that he had informed Mr Magara when the payment was made.

He, however, did not produce any proof of that.

“We did not agree on any conclusive figure as my final fees. We had a gentleman’s agreement that a deposit of Sh5 million will be sufficient to start off the case,” Mr Kigen told journalists after the hearing.