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Kenya’s Chief Justice, Dr Willy Mutunga takes a bow from the Judiciary where he headed the Supreme Court for five years from 2011.
The CJ has clocked 70, but still looks decades younger, a peculiar characteristic of men and women from Eastern Kenya (read Kamba land), who are blessed with that hardy visage that makes them appear to be of indeterminate age.
Think too of former veep, Kalonzo Musyoka. He is bending his 60s, but is yet to be gnarled by the patina of time as is former Lands CS, Charity Ngilu, a year older than Kalonzo, but still sporting the same look she had when she vied for the presidency under Masaa ni ya Ngilu rallying call in 1997.
There is something about Kaos and their lithe, ageless frames.
Back to the CJ, Dr Willy Mutunga. He is Kenya’s 21st Chief Justice since Sir Robert William Hamilton served for 15 years to 1920 - the year our country became a colony.
Kenya was previously a British Protectorate established in 1895 by the British East Africa Company, which ran the country on behalf of the Queen.
The Judiciary under which CJ Mutunga served was established in 1897 and fashioned after the British legal system.
Did you know that while the legal structures were English, our laws were codified in India, which was also a British colony? Our criminal code was borrowed from India to establish what later became Kenya’s police service. This explains why the earliest karaos were muhindis and the odd mwarabu employed to guard warehouses and rail carriages owned by, you guessed it, the British East Africa Company.
Her Magistrate’s court was set up and later renamed the High Court of East Africa. Initially, odieros and miros had separate courts and did you know it was a capital offence for a nyeuthi man to rape a jungu... and that white offenders were judged by mzungu judges (who had jurors), while miros only had assessors?
All the above ended when Kenya became independent in 1963 with Charles Njonjo as Attorney General. Other changes introduced by Njonjo included repealing colonial laws that had turned Kenya into a colony, abolishing racial courts and replacing colonial passbooks with the ID card.
Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga excited Kenyans with his earring.
More on other interesting CJs next week.
