Legal Trickery that fosters corruption

What is Ksh 5 million to a law firm or other intermediary whose commission will be multiples of the same? There is no prison time on offer which makes Ksh 5 million an attractive “cost of doing business” when the asset being stolen is worth billions or tens of millions.

These are the types of “do nothing” laws being passed as part of a public relations exercise in the fight against corruption. Most people know that the professional theft of public assets is almost always done with the involvement of lawyers (through their firms) and intertwined corporate entities.

Obviously one cannot jail a company or law firm but its directors/partners, the deletion of these clauses should be seen as legal engineering designed to defeat its effectiveness against big fish who use corporate entities to commit crimes.

[INDENT=2]Agents and brokers will be fined Sh5 million or jailed for 10 years for arranging sale of property obtained through corruption if MPs approve new changes to the Bribery Act.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=2]The proposed changes seek to rope in the third parties, including lawyers as Kenya ropes in the private sector in the fight against corruption.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=2]“Any person who knowingly assists a person or a private entity to give or receive a bribe by acquiring property which was obtained as a result of or in connection with bribery commits an offence,” the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2018 states.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=2][COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]Mr Duale has also proposed the deletion of section 16 (7) and (12) of the Act that relates to offences by corporate organisations.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=2][COLOR=rgb(226, 80, 65)]Mr Duale did not give reasons for the deletion of the sections.[/INDENT]
[INDENT=2] https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/Sh5m-fine-for-arranging-graft-assets-sale/539546-4539968-13yb8ww/index.html [/INDENT]

These guys are all intent on screwing us whatever which way!

This will be difficult to prosecute a lawyer. All the lawyer will argue is he was given information in good faith to transfer the property. The prosecutor will have to prove the lawyer knew the transfer of the property was illegal, which means the lawyer was performing a criminal act in his office. That is forging documents, etc.
Looks redundant to me.

Are you saying that a lawyer cannot be prosecuted for assisting a thief?

An intelligent lawyer will leave the task of forging documents to the client but advise the client on how to make a transaction appear legitimate, which advise can be taken or rejected by the client. In this case the lawyer ni safi kama pamba, it is only the client who can sue the lawyer for giving wrong advise which can be treated as professional misconduct before it even reaches the criminal court. It is the same obstacle the DPP has to scale before he can prosecute the doctors who allegedly carried out surgery on the wrong patient.

Lawyers are or should be in a position to determine the status of a piece of land or property by conducting relevant checks. If they find it is government property, road reserve, public space or the property bears another name other than that of their client, they should not be involved in legalising such transaction; such properties should not be transferable.

There should be a designated Lands Authority, an office where lawyers make notification when they encounter such anomalies, the office acts upon the notice by putting a hold/Alert Flag on the property, only when All registered parties are notified and issues cleared would the flag be cleared by a traceable Senior Manager. Without flagging properties that have anomalies, if a seller is refused by one lawyer they will simply move on and look for another lawyer .

If he knowingly assists a fraudulent transaction, that is fraud or laundering. I was thinking this is already covered under present laws. He can assist a thief as long as the thief is carrying out a legal transaction. And he doesn’t know.

Ask yourself this simple question, is a lawyer prohibited from representing a criminal in court? There lies your answer.

I will support your nomination to parliament. But also remember, that authority is already there. It is called the Ministry of Lands.

Lawyers help thieves to avoid getting time in jail all the time.

When they are not part of the actual crime! If they are the ones driving the getaway car, I bet they are thieves, not lawyers.

That’s my point. If they participate in the fraud, and in most cases, land transactions involve some legal wrangling, they are as guilty as the land grabber. In any legal dealing, they ask the client to sign a document declaring that “they are not stealing” (reword to your satisfaction). In other words, they know that they have an obligation not to participate in illegal activities. I assume that they are being put on notice that it will not be taken for granted that they do their due diligence.

While difficult, lawyers who engage in willful and deliberate crimes deserve to prosecuted like any other criminal. The claim to ignorance has a higher bar for lawyer. Kenyan lawyers are the ones who do the forgeries in the transfer of land, otherwise how else is land theft rampant in Kenya more than most other places in the world? What Duale’s law as amended would do is enable the prosecution of small time lawyers operating as their own person rather than those through a law firm. All a lawyer now has to do in the commission of a corrupt act is hide behind a registered briefcase entity and they will escape under the propose law “as is”

Lawyers and bankers are the biggest crooks in any country.

Thank you