DUTY OF HONESTY AND GOOD FAITH

The Advocate’s Act provides that:

Every advocate and every person otherwise entitled to act as an advocate shall be an officer
of the Court and shall be subject to the jurisdiction thereof and, subject to this Act, to the
jurisdiction of the Disciplinary Committee.1

Therefore, as officers of the Court advocates have an ethical duty to tell judges the truth, including
avoiding dishonesty. Besides, an advocate should, respect the need for truth and truth-seeking
within the confines of the adversary system and as an active participant of a system that places
justice as a core value. The advocate is supposed to represent his client in honesty and good faith.
This is such a wide duty that implies that the advocate should not pursue his own interests in the
matter but should always have the interest of the client as first priority. Again, the advocate is
supposed to inform the client about the progress of the case and other matters that may be relevant
to the client.2
Moreover in the case of Kinyanjui v Republic.3 , the court held that:-

The appellant in this case did not act as an advocate. He used the fact that he was an
advocate as a cloak to put in place a scheme to defraud the estate of the deceased persons
of what was rightly due to them…. It is our finding that the advocate-client relationship
does not preclude the state from instituting criminal charges where it has been
established that a criminal offence has been committed.
The court in the above case then proceeded to enhance the sentence to four years imprisonment
for each count to run concurrently in addition to the KShs. 50,000 fi ne for each count.

1
See Advocate Act Section 55
2
See Professional Ethics A kenyan Perspective by Prof. Tom Ojienda & Katrina Juma
3
[2004] 2 KLR 364.