Lawyers who defended the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in a petition filed by former Cord presidential candidate Raila Odinga have billed the IEBC Sh380 million.
Ahmednassir Abdullahi, who represented the presidential election returning officer Issack Hassan, is asking for Sh50 million. The IEBC's lead counsel Aurelo Rebello wants Sh25 million, while lawyers who worked under him are demanding Sh20 million and less.
The IEBC is divided on the huge fees, with some commissioners asking the lawyers to reduce their fees. Other commissioners and senior managers want the commission to pay all the fees as demanded.
The IEBC is due to discuss the issue today. Yesterday, commission chairman Issack and CEO James Oswago told the Star they did not know yet how much the lawyers are demanding
“It is not true that we have received the bills from the lawyers. We are waiting for the CEO to brief the commission on the same next week,” Issack said. “The CEO has not seen the bills but, as and when the invoices come, the Commission will pay the lawyers according to the Advocates Remuneration Act which prescribes the fees payable to lawyers,” Oswago said.
Raila and civil society activists Gladwell Otieno and Zahid Rajan had challenged the outcome of the presidential elections citing malpractices. The Supreme Court dismissed both the petitions.
The third petition by Moses Kuria, Dennis Itumbi and Florence Sergon that wanted the court to declare that rejected ballots should not be used in the computation of the final tally for each candidate was upheld.
The Court however said the petitioners and the respondents should each bear the costs of the petition. In the petitions by Gladwell and Rajan, IEBC was represented by advocates Aurelio Rebello, Lucy Kambuni, Mohammed Nyaoga, Paul Nyamodi, Eric Gumbo, Nani Mungai, Hillary Sigei, Mahat Somane and Kimani Muhoro.
Issack, who was also a respondent in his capacity as the returning officer for the presidential elections was represented by Ahmednassir Abdullahi and Kamau Karori.
In the case by Jubilee activists Kuria, Itumbi and Sergon, IEBC’s lawyers were Ahmednassir and Karori. Some IEBC lawyers who spoke on condition of anonymity complained at the Sh50 million bill from Ahmednassir, which is twice what the IEBC’s lead lawyer is asking for in legal fees.
The lawyers said Ahmednassir was not even the lead lawyer for the commission. “We had anticipated the petitions and factored in about Sh1.2 billion in our budget but this is one of the items that were removed when our budget was scaled down. Therefore, they can only be paid in the next financial year or else, we will have to request the money directly from the treasury before the new financial year,” said Issack.
With just one petition running up to Sh380 million, there are fears that IEBC could end up paying huge legal fees in defending the 145 cases that have been filed in various courts countrywide.
By last week, election losers and voters had filed 145 petitions with the courts. Three of those challenge the election of County Assemby Speakers of Machakos, Embu and Bomet.
There are 20 petitions against the election of governors, seven challenging senators, and 56 and 54 for MPs and county assembly representative respectively. There are five petitions challenging the election of women's representatives.
The deadline set for filing of election petitions contesting the outcome of the March 4 general election was April 10, according to the judiciary's director of Public Affairs and Communication Naim Bilal. Meanwhile, there is a division within the IEBC on how to carry out a post-election evaluation.
FOR THE RECORD
FRED Ngatia was among three lawyers appearing in a file photo
illustrating our story yesterday headlined 'Petition Lawyers hit IEBC
with Sh380m bill'. This may have inadvertently given the impression that
Ngatia was representing the IEBC at the Supreme Court whereas he was
representing Jubilee, as was made clear in the caption. We wish to make
it clear that Ngatia is not billing the IEBC for any fees over the
Supreme Court hearing.
illustrating our story yesterday headlined 'Petition Lawyers hit IEBC
with Sh380m bill'. This may have inadvertently given the impression that
Ngatia was representing the IEBC at the Supreme Court whereas he was
representing Jubilee, as was made clear in the caption. We wish to make
it clear that Ngatia is not billing the IEBC for any fees over the
Supreme Court hearing.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment