The Nairobi County Government has been urged to develop a policy on outsourcing of legal services that will reduce spending on legal fees.
Nominated MCA Silvia Museiya on Tuesday said that a lot of money is spent in the office of the County Attorney while the county has only eight lawyers.
"As we speak the legal department has only eight lawyers inclusive of the county attorney. The lawyers are supposed to provide legal advice and attend to legal matters across all the departments in the county which is a heavy weight on their shoulder," she said.
Museiya further expressed concerns that the county has lost many cases and resources due to lack of robust legal representation in cases involving the County Government.
"Aware that the County Assembly enacted the Nairobi City County Office of the County Attorney Act to be staffed with competent Legislative drafters, legal personnel and constitutional experts the department has remained to be understaffed for almost a year," she said.
"The county legal department has failed to promote and guide the county resources in a manner to protect the property of residents of Nairobi County due to lack of professionalism."
With the policy, we will be able to have more professionals and lawyers who are up to the task of making the office of the county Attorney fully operationalised.
The Act provides for the functions of the office of the county attorney which include drafting of legislation passed by the county.
The MCA also noted that the county assembly has passed several acts which have not been published as required by the Law.
Museiya said that with the policy in place it will be able to to provide for outsourcing of legal services to handle complex or time consuming projects and cases on a more affordable budget.
