Senior counsel Fred Ngatia will probably be the next lead lawyer of Migori Governor Okoth Obado who has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend Sharon Otieno.
His current lawyers, led by retired judge Nicholas Ombija, have not been able to convince the courts to release the Migori county boss on bail and this is not sitting pretty with him.
Even with some of the best legal minds on his side assisting Ombija-Cliff Ombeta and a Evans Ondieki-the prosecution managed the convince the courts to add to Obado;s woes by including charges of murdering their unborn child.
According to Robert Alai, the strong willed Obado is changing tact. He wants Fred Ngatia on his side. Of course Ngatia is one of the best if not the best legal minds in Kenya and he doesn’t come cheap.
His legal fees is in millions but that wont deter Obado from hiring him. He stands to lose his seat; his sanity and billions of shillings if he remains behind bars. So how much will he pay the soft spoken, old school lawyer to lead his defense team?
Ngatia list of clients reads like who is who in Kenya. He was the lead lawyer during the two presidential election petitions. He won the first presidential petition for Jubilee in 2013 but lost the second petition in 2017, challenged by CORD and NASA respectively.
His legal fee has been the subject of discussion and controversy. In one case in particular, Ngatia led a team of lawyers to bill their client, the Kenya Airports Authority kes209 million.
In the 2017 presidential petition, he slapped the Jubilee party with a bill of kes300 million. He was the lead lawyer, obviously receiving a larger chunk of the pay.
Okoth Obado will not pay the seasoned lawyer anything less than 10 million for the services of Fred Ngatia if he agrees to take over as purported by Robert Alai.