Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 594121,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594121/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 286,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "duty has been given to the County Attorney to be able to liaise with the AG of the national Government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have Clause 8 which is very important and which gives the County Attorney the right to appear at any stage of the proceedings of the court. He can require an officer in the County Public Service to furnish him with information. Not just require but can also summon that officer to give him that information and he can issue directives to officers. All these powers are necessary for the County Attorney to have. If he does not have those powers and the governor is very strong, the officers can decide to ignore, and this has happened even at the national level. They can decide to ignore the advice of the AG. They can decide to ignore the AG when he requires some information to enable him go and defend in court. In fact, they can decide to ignore him even on any investment agreement that is being formulated. So, it is necessary and important that the County Attorney has these specific powers and authority backed by an Act of Parliament to be able to summon and tell the officer that he is summoning him or her in accordance with the Act. He has the power to summon and, therefore, he must come. That officer has to undergo the pain of prosecution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I talked earlier about the County Attorney also advising the county assembly and there is a specific Clause which says: “The County Attorney may upon request appear before a Committee of the county assembly.” These are more or less the same powers as the Cabinet Secretaries appearing before us which we were referring to this afternoon in Article 153 of the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is also necessary to give the County Attorney some measure of authority so that he can decide without fear or favour that he is insulated from criminal proceedings from the work that he does as the County Attorney, not just him but also the officers under him. These days, you can easily have a private prosecution being mounted against you and you are doing a very good job. That is a way of fighting you because you are doing a very good job so that the cartels can get away with their criminal activities. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are also giving the power of removal. We do not want a County Attorney General to be just removed, although he is appointed by the governor. He should not just hear on the one o’clock local radio that he has been removed. So, the county assembly has to approve his removal. His removal must be on specified grounds such as serious violation of the Constitution, gross misconduct, physical or mental incapacity, incompetency and bankruptcy. We have also provided for a delegation of some of the powers of the County Attorney to his officers who are working within the office. There are some requirements under law; for example, when I was the Attorney- General, only I could approve a rape case under my signature, only the Attorney-General could enter a nolle prosequi, only the AG could approve a case involving corruption and so on. There were many grey areas; by the time a file comes from Malindi to Nairobi to approve a rape, incest or a corruption case, a number of months have elapsed. There have been many delays in court. So, under Article 14, we have provided for some delegation of 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."
}