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"id": 594105,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594105/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wako",
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"speaker": {
"id": 366,
"legal_name": "Amos Sitswila Wako",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I continue to move that the Office of the County Attorney Bill, (Senate Bill No.37 of 2014) be read a Second Time. This Bill is long overdue because the office of a person with the responsibility to advise the Government on all matters relating to law and legal affairs is extremely important for any government. In fact, if one has to look at the history of how governments came into existence, he will immediately know that some of the offices are very critical to the Government. The Office of the Attorney-General, Treasury and Security are the most important. Therefore, for any Government to succeed, the three offices, I have mentioned are very important. If you looked into the legal affairs of any government, you will find that, for example, the kings in the United Kingdom were very prominent. Our Constitution talks of two levels of government; the national Government and the devolved government. County governments should operate properly under our Constitution. Therefore, county governments are very important for proper implementation of the Constitution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the drafters of the current Constitution took into account that county governments will need legal advisors. Under our Constitution, the Attorney- General is a legal advisor to the Government. That is an indication that the Attorney- General of the Republic of Kenya is supposed to advise, not only the national Government, but also county governments. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Article 156 which provides for the functions of the Attorney-General, you will see that Article156(4)(c) states that:- “The Attorney-General shall perform any other functions conferred on the office by an Act of Parliament or by the President.” Apart from being the Principal Legal Advisor to the Government, the Attorney- General shall represent the Government in court, promote the rule of law and the observance of human rights and so on. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the County Government Act was enacted. The Act provides in Section 43 that a county government can request the Attorney-General to represent it in court or any other legal proceedings in which it is a party. In other words, under our Constitution, any county government can request the Attorney-General to act for it in any legal proceedings. However, we know that the Attorney-General is focused on the national Government. In fact, from what I know and I even checked yesterday, the situation is still the same although it has improved slightly. It is more or less the same because the work of the national Government has quadrupled since members of the public are now aware of their rights. Our Constitution is complicated and its implementation required a lot of advice from time to time. The Attorney-General is already inundated with a lot of work. Therefore, it will be too much if all county governments asked the Attorney-General for advice. We are talking about 47 county governments, particularly at this time when we are implementing provisions in our Constitution. We are like a trailblazer because everything and any step requires legal advice. Therefore, the office of the Attorney-General cannot cope with whatever would be required by the various county governments by way of legal advice. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}