A law firm has applied for the withdrawal of a case involving three Nairobi city county officials whose warrant of arrest had been issued for disobeying court orders.
Koceyo and Company Advocates says in a June 25 letter to deputy registrar of the High Court that it does not intend to pursue the case against Leboo Morintat, Allan Igambi and Halkano Waqo.
“We refer to the judicial review application of 2019 and court warrants of arrest issued on June 25, 2020. This is to inform you that we do not intend to pursue the same since the respondents have been settling our fees,” Titus Koceyo says in the letter.
The case was filed last year after the law firm's fee was not settled.
The three officials had been asked to show cause why they should not be jailed for disobeying orders.
Leboo is the deputy county secretary. Igambi is the Finance executive while Waqo is the Finance chief officer.
The warrant for their arrest was issued by deputy registrar CA Muchoki on Wednesday last week and was to be executed by Central Police Station OCS.
Leboo, Igambi and Waqo were to be presented in court on July 20.
Koceyo Advocates had complained that the county government had failed to pay its Sh2.4 million legal fees despite a court order that the same should be settled.
It sought to compel the county executive member in charge of finance to pay Sh2.4 million with interest.
On February 13, the court issued the show cause notice to the county officials and appear in person or through an advocate on March 16.
However, they were not required to be in court if the county paid the money.
City Hall opposed the application, claiming it was incompetent. It also denied that its officers had refused to satisfy the decretal amount.
It blamed the national government for not providing adequate funds for it to settle any claims.
The county has several outstanding decrees, a state of affairs it attributes to financial constraints.
The court had been told that the devolved unit can only be accountable for what it received from the national government, maintaining that it can not settle any claims without funds allocation.
- mwaniki fm
