Learned friends set new dates for AGM, appointment of auditors

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has announced plans to contract Pricewaterhousecoopers to audit its accounts after PKF expressed displeasure with the conducts of its (LSK) members following a disputed meeting that ended prematurely last weekend.

In a statement to the newsrooms and signed by chair Eric Mutua, LSK accuses the OKOA LSK – an opposing faction that is calling for reforms in the lawyers’ body – of trying to disrupt its operations despite there being set procedures to raise and address grievances.

This comes even after a second AGM ended pre-maturely after the members of the OKOA LSK group accused the body of embezzling funds and colluding with the auditing firm – PKF Kenya – to doctor the accounts report for the group.

LSK proposed that: “We should let OKOA LSK appoint auditors (including appointing Pricewaterhousecoopers as demanded in some of their pleadings in court) to audit the IAC funds and a QS to look at the Bills of Quantities in order to come up with reports on the funds and the cost of the project respectively.”

“The society was to pay for such exercise. When Ken Fraser Senior Counsel conveyed the said proposal to OKOA LSK through Edwin Sifuna, it was rejected with a response that all members of LSK had abandoned the project. Minutes of deliberations by senior counsel committee are available,” read the statement in part.

Mutua argues that OKOA LSK has continued to deliberately attempt to malign the name of the current auditors m/s PKF Kenya and the fact that they have been our auditors for five years now they have indicated that they do not wish to continue as auditors for the society.

“The council is to meet and deliberate on the issue with a view to appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers as the auditors. If need be, after the appointment council shall move the general meeting in March next year for purposes of ratification of the said appointment,” added the statement.

The Saturday AGM was the second to end in disarray after the first one was disrupted by the same OKOA Kenya members in March this year after differences over the construction of the International Arbitration Center arose causing serious confrontations between the two factions.