Court suspends State directive on hiring external advocates

A directive to ministries and State departments not to hire external advocates unless approved by the AG has been suspended.

This will be in effect pending hearing and determination of a case filed by Law Society of Kenya Nairobi Branch Kenya.

In July, Ministries, State Departments and State Agencies were directed to withdraw court cases filed against any other State agency in 14 days.

They were also directed not to contract external counsel without the written approval of the Attorney-General and terminate within 21 days from the with all external advocates who had been contracted without the express and prior grant of the concurrence of the Attorney-General.

However the LSK branch moved to court to challenge the directive arguing that their members were not party to the decision made by the government.