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    "id": 805097,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/805097/?format=api",
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    "content": "important role in advising the President in the same way the County Attorney will be playing a very important role in so far as advising the county government and the governor before he can assent to any Bill. It is good that it be known that we are not creating one office because when people hear the office of the County Attorney, they must understand that it will operate in the same way as the office of the Attorney-General which is not the office of the Attorney-General alone but the whole state law office. The office of the County Attorney will comprise the whole county law office which comprises the County Attorney himself just like the Attorney-General at the national level and all the other lawyers below them who will be assisting the counties to ensure that there is proper legal compliance. In the meeting that we had this morning with the arbitrators and the Center for Dispute Resolution, as a Senate, we are pursuing the new desire that counties depart from litigation to arbitration, reconciliation and mediation as a means of solving their disputes for us to do away with the run-away legal cost. I have said in this House - many Senators agree with me, including lawyers who are in this House - that there are situations in our counties that we are worried about such as the legal fees that are being paid to lawyers. The remuneration order makes it clear that one should not charge below a certain amount of money but it does not say up to how much. Unscrupulous, corrupt individuals and people who want to fleece our counties are using rogue lawyers as a conduit for corruption where they give somebody legal work yet when you measure the quality and the quantity of that work, it does not reach the extent that it would say that he should have paid a lawyer. If you give somebody work and measure the quantity and quality of that work, it cannot amount to what this lawyers demand. Governor Sonko of Nairobi County intercepted a payment of Kshs200 million to a lawyer. After taxation, it was reduced to Kshs3 million. The county was to be fleeced Kshs197 million. Therefore, the office of the County Attorney will be important to cure this malpractice and maladministration at the county level. The counties will reduce the amount of legal work that they will delegate to lawyers who are not working within the County Attorney’s office. This Bill is critical in as far as our responsibilities are concerned. I believe we can pass this Bill by next week if we vote in the Second Reading, take it through the Committee of the Whole. The good thing with it is that it was published after it had been tidied up. Contributions on it were made in both the last and this Parliament and the Committee did public participation. I believe we will have a good and solid law that will help our counties to have an institutionalised office of the County Attorney and the staff therein. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I believe that the National Assembly will act expeditiously to pass all the legislation. However, there is something that worries me a lot; whereas we are pursuing mediation, conciliation, negotiation and all the good things that are related to the “hand shake”, Bills that go to the National Assembly from this House can even take a year before they are tabled. That is sad and discouraging. I can say with confidence that since the inception of the National Assembly, it has never reached the number of Private Members Bills that the Senate has generated in its last term and this term. It is a shame to stifle Bills that are being generated and passed by 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."
}