Hussein Khalid opposes bid to give Ruto power to appoint senior counsel
By Nancy Marende, August 15, 2025Human rights activist Hussein Khalid has opposed a proposed amendment that would grant the president unilateral authority to confer the rank of senior counsel.
The Advocates (Amendment) Bill, 2025, sponsored by Tharaka Nithi Member of Parliament (MP) and chair of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, George Gitonga Murugara, proposes to allow the President to confer the Senior Counsel title on individuals who have served in top constitutional positions.
The Bill outlines that eligible individuals include speakers and deputy speakers of Parliament, chief justices, deputy chief justices, attorneys general, directors of public prosecutions, solicitors general, heads of legal parliamentary committees, presidents of the Court of Appeal and the Law Society of Kenya, principal judges of the High Court, and others who have offered exemplary service to the legal and public service in Kenya.
In a statement on Friday, August 15, 2025, Khalid questioned the rationale behind the proposal and demanded transparency on its origins.
“Ati amendment to grant the President unilateral authority to confer the rank of Senior Counsel? What madness is this? Who even proposed this amendment? He or she should be named and shamed. Resist, resist, resist!” he stated.
Lawyers
Further, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), in partnership with the Senior Counsel Bar, has also opposed a proposed amendment to the Advocates Act.
In a statement by Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo on Friday, August 15, 2025, she warned that the amendment threatens to erode decades of professional standards by politicising a process that has long been anchored in merit, peer review, and independence from executive influence.
“The Law Society of Kenya, in conjunction with the Senior Counsel Bar, is firmly opposing the proposed amendment to the Advocates Act that seeks to grant the President unilateral authority to confer the rank of Senior Counsel,” Faith said.
According to the LSK President, the Society and the Senior Counsel, while opposing the amendment, will undermine their standards by shifting authority to confer the prestigious ranks to political officeholders while arguing that the process should remain merit-based.
“The proposed amendments risk undermining decades of hard-won standards by shifting authority to confer this prestigious rank to political officeholders. This process must remain merit-based, peer-reviewed and independent of political influence,” Faith noted.