The State Law Office has revealed that Justin Muturi defended 1,503 out of 1,588 cases filed against the government between September 2022 and September 2023 while he was serving as the Attorney General.
In an exit scorecard on Wednesday, March 26, the office said an analysis of some of the concluded cases demonstrated savings to the Government above Ksh17.5 billion.
“In accordance with its mandate, the Office is to represent the national government in court or in any other legal proceedings to which the national government (ministries, departments, and state corporations) is a party. These include legal proceedings filed in international, regional or municipal courts, international and domestic arbitral tribunals and other statutory tribunals and other Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) fora such as mediation, adjudication and negotiation amongst others,” the report read in part.
Some of the cases Muturi’s office successfully defended and saved the government money include the Nairobi Civil Appeal No. 638 of 2019, Attorney General vs Kabuito Contractors Limited, where the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, thereby saving the government Ksh5.2 billion, and Nairobi Supreme Court Petition No. E006 of 2022, Torino Enterprises Ltd vs Attorney General, where the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, saving the Government Kshs3.7 billion.
Another case won by Muturi was the Eldoret ELC No. 649 of 2012, Stephen K. Cheruiyot -v- Attorney General and others, where the court dismissed a third-party claim against the Attorney General for the sum of Ksh100 million being an indemnity for wrongful allocation of the land.
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The exit scorecard also revealed that Muturi issued 708 legal advisories on bilateral, regional, and international law matters issued to Ministries within six days of receiving the requests and 225 advisories in matters on International Judicial Cooperation in criminal matters within 6 working days.
Further, the office represented the Government in 5 ongoing International Arbitration matters seeking to defend the Government against liabilities in excess of Ksh 632 billion.
The report comes after President William Ruto said Muturi was incompetent during his tenure as Attorney General.
Ruto accused Muturi of delaying the establishment of a Waqf, an Islamic endowment system that has been the subject of governance debates.
"I had a problem with the AG who was there, he was fairly incompetent. But I now have a very competent lady in that position, and I can assure you that the issues of Waqf will be sorted out in a matter of months," said Ruto.
In response, Muturi said there is no provision for a Muslim Endowment Fund under the Waqf Act No. 8 of 2022.
