Advocates and lawyers taking an oath of office.[Photo/the-star.co.ke]
Disquiet is creeping into Kenya’s legal fraternity over what is being described as “a selfish and discriminatory club” of barristers sheltering under the exclusive umbrella of Senior Counsel.
Equivalent to the rank of Queen’s Counsel in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth jurisdictions, the position was first introduced in Kenya in February 2003.
To qualify as Senior Counsel then, one had to have served as chair of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). However, the rules were changed in October 2008 when Okong’o Omogeni was LSK boss. The Omogeni Regulations, titled Senior Counsel (Conferment and Privileges) Rules, stipulated that LSK chairpersons would no longer routinely qualify for the prestigious saddle.
Instead, all lawyers would have to apply for consideration. Consequently, a committee comprising the Attorney General, LSK chairman, a Court of Appeal and a High Court judge, three Senior Counsel, and four advocates would vet applicants.
To qualify, one must have 15 years’ experience as an advocate of the High Court, be a legal practitioner who undertakes training of junior members and has also argued serious and precedent-setting suits before superior courts. However, lawyers now lament that in spite of clear procedures and stipulations, nothing has happened in the last five years.
All the 31 members were elevated in two installments during the tenure of former Attorney-General Amos Wako as chairman of the selection committee. In 2013, Wako relinquished the reins to Fred N’Cruba Ojiambo.
Under Ojiambo’s stewardship, lawyers say, no new recruitment of members into the Senior Counsel cadre were conducted, though legal practitioners apply in their hundreds each year.
Ojiambo’s team, they say, is shrouded in mystery; operating “under a veneer of secrecy, opaqueness, and isolation as well as looking down upon fellow lawyers who have not been invited into the Senior Counsel Club”, however experienced and schooled they might be.