By Patricia Mollyne Mataga
Lawyer Donald Kipkorir has accused some senior officers at the Nairobi City County of running an extortion scheme.
The scheme, Kipkorir claims, targets individuals doing business with the City County.In a lengthy post on his verified X handle (formerly Twitter), the Senior Counsel said the rogue county officers had demanded he parts way with some money before he can be paid for legal services rendered to the defunct Nairobi Municipality.
He however refused to give into their demands.”I have been in the panel of Nairobi City County since 1998 when it was Nairobi City Council. Until 2012, providing legal services to the City was joyous as there was no extortion of any kind,” Kipkorir said.
“Since devolution in 2013, payment of legal fees & bills for provision of other services like construction et al became subject to surrender of your payments to City Hall apparatchiks. I refused to pay & City Hall stopped giving me work or paying my outstanding legal fees,” he added.
The lawyer is embroiled in a legal tussle with the county over Ksh1.69 billion that the county is supposed to pay him.
Recently, the court attached some of the county assets to the unpaid bills in the case that was ruled in favour of the lawyer.
But even as he continues to push for the payment of services he rendered to the City County, the lawyer said in the current administration, a lawyer and other suppliers are being forced to part ways with huge sums of money to get what is due to them.
“In the current County Government, to be paid legal fees, you must pay City Hall officials to the highest level 50% of your legitimate fees. Contractors pay upto 40%,” the prominent lawyer said.
However, he insists he will not pay even a cent so that he gets what belongs to him despite threats to frustrate him.
“That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that Public Officials have weaponized their offices for extortion & blackmail,” Donald Kipkorir noted.
“Nairobi City County is truly rotten at all levels. It is irredeemable,” he added.
