President William Ruto has slammed Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi, declaring him incompetent for delaying the establishment of the Muslim Endowment Fund (Waqf) that had been proposed by Muslim leaders.
Speaking during an IFtar celebration on Tuesday, March 25 evening with the Muslim community at State House, Nairobi, Ruto expressed his concerns claiming that while he was Kenya’s Attorney General (AG), Muturi was unfit to handle legal issues.
“I agree with you that the Muslim Endowment Fund has taken too long. There is no reason. I had a problem with the AG who was there, he was fairly incompetent, but we now have a competent lady and I can assure you that the issue will be sorted out,” Ruto stated.
President Ruto expressed his commitment to resolving the prolonged issues surrounding the Waqf under the leadership of the current AG Dorcas Odour.
The Waqf is a form of charitable endowment where assets are dedicated permanently for religious or charitable purposes, with the income generated used to support ongoing charitable objectives like education, health care and social services.
Muturi’s scorecard
An exit scorecard of Muturi, during his tenure as the AG, indicates that in the period between September, 2022 and September 2023, the office concluded 1,588 cases, out of which 1,503 were successfully defended.
The conclusion of these cases saved the government KSh17.5 billion. Some key highlight of cases that the Office of the AG successfully defended and consequently saved the government money include:
- Nairobi Civil Appeal No. 638 of 2019 Attorney General vs Kabuito Contractors Limited where the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal thereby saving the government in excess of KSh5,200,637,048.53 upon factoring the award of interest.
- Nairobi Supreme Court Petition No. E006 of 2022, Torino Enterprises Ltd vs Attorney General where the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal thus saving the Government in KSh3,771,429,041.10.
- Eldoret ELC No. 649 of 2012: Stephen K. Cheruiyot -v- Attorney General & others, the court dismissed a third-party claim against the Attorney General for the sum of KSh100 million being an indemnity for wrongful allocation of the land.
In terms of legislation, Muturi oversaw the formal drafting of 36 pieces of legislation to support the BETA including the Affordable Housing Bill, 2023, Gambling Control Bill, 2023, the National Lottery Bill, 2023, and 11 Legal Notices for the establishment of Special Economic Zones and Export Processing Zones (in Kiambu County, Mombasa County, Nairobi County, Trans Nzoia County,
Murang’a County and Uasin Gishu County).
Legislative drafting services
During Muturi’s tenure, the scorecard also says that the Office facilitated the formal drafting of 8 Bills meant to harmonize the existing legislation with the Constitution including the Land Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Co-operatives Bill, 2023, 16 other prioritized Bills including the Tax Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Wildlife Conservation and Management Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the Technopolis Bill, 2023, and the Kenya National Council for Population and Development Bill, 2023, and, 110 other pieces of subsidiary legislation including Gazette Notices for the appointment of members of various Boards of State Corporations and certain administrative processes of the Business Registration Service and Competition Authority of Kenya.
Discipline in the legal profession
Through the Advocates Complaints Commission, the Office also received a total of 1,052 complaints against advocates.
Out of the pending complaints, 614 complaints that were not aggravated in nature were subjected to ADR mechanism and in the process, the Office facilitated collection of KES. 15,072,673 on behalf of the aggrieved parties and mostly indigent complainants.
A total of197 aggravated complaints against advocates were referred to the Advocates Disciplinary Committee (Tribunal) during the period and the following serious sanctions were issued; 7 advocates were struck off the Roll of Advocates and 3 were suspended for periods ranging between 6 months and 5 years.
