Paul Kihara: Distinguished jurist whose service left an indelible mark

He was a figure defined by silence, choosing to operate from the shadows in an arena where power usually demands a microphone, but with an aura of elegance and class.

Whenever he spoke, his most distinguishable trait was his flow of thought and polished Queen’s English.

 As Kenya’s Attorney General, Justice Paul Kihara Kariuki occupied an office that served as the frontline defendant whenever the state or the presidency faced legal challenge, yet he rarely stood before his former judicial peers to argue the government’s case himself.

Instead, his influence worked through quiet finesse, directing legal strategy while his lieutenants stepped into the line of fire.

Even when the monumental Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) reached the courts, the closest he came to the fray was deploying his deputy, former Solicitor General Ken Ogeto, to take command of the legal battery.

His ascension to the chief legal advisor’s desk arrived with characteristic abruptness on Tuesday, 13 February 2018.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta delivered the transition in a concise three-sentence tweet announcing the departure of Professor Githu Muigai and nominating Kihara as his successor—a brief dispatch that sparked immediate speculation across Kenya's legal fraternity.

Following his passing yesterday, the former Head of State eulogized the 72-year-old jurist as a dedicated public servant whose tenure as Attorney General from 2018 to 2022 and earlier leadership as President of the Court of Appeal left an indelible imprint on the nation's public institutions.

Behind that quiet institutional presence lay a broad pedigree that spanned the courtroom, the boardroom, and the pulpit.

While announcing his death, Chief Justice Martha Koome remembered him as a dedicated legal guru, with an enduring legacy. He was at one point her boss, as the Court of Appeal President.

“As we mourn his passing, we also celebrate a life devoted to the law, public service and the strengthening of institutions that sustain the rule of law. His legacy will endure through the institutions he helped build, the reforms he championed and the generations of judicial and legal professionals who benefited from his leadership,” said Koome.

 After earning his law degree from the University of Nairobi in 1977, Kihara cut his teeth as a legal assistant at Hamilton Harrison and Mathews (HHM), later navigating corporate commerce as Group Managing Director of the International Controls Group of Companies.

Faith was an inheritance as much as a career station: his father, the late Bishop Obadiah Kariuki of the Mount Kenya Diocese, had narrowly missed the leadership of the Anglican Church in Kenya in 1970 to Bishop Festo Olang.

He was deeply religious.

 The younger Kariuki followed that path to serve as the church's chancellor, relinquishing the clerical legal post only when he was elevated to the judiciary.

Appointed to the High Court by President Mwai Kibaki in 2003, Kihara rose under Chief Justice Evans Gicheru to direct the Judicial Training Institute (current Judiciary academy). For years he remained anchored in Nairobi while peers rotated through regional postings, eventually moving to Machakos amidst persistent whispers that he was being groomed to inherit the Chief Justice seat, a distinction for which he was later considered alongside Justice David Maraga.

 When he ultimately stepped away from the State law office, he departed as quietly as he had governed it, though not without one final entanglement in court alongside Ogeto regarding their membership status within the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).

 The then LSK’s council led by Nelson Havi had directed Kihara and Ogeto to explain why they should not be kicked out of the society during the AGM for alleged misconduct, stemming from a fight over the swearing-in of 41 judges nominated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).

The society had vowed to give the two a certificate of dishonour and delist them.

However, the only hurdle to LSK’s meeting was the venue, as the Ministry of Health (MoH) had banned congregating to minimise the spread of COVID-19.

The then LSK CEO Mercy Wambua had asked the court to allow the lobby to hold its meeting on June 23 but the court dismissed the prayer, noting that it was floated before the court orally.

“Obviously, the disruption of the nature of COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented and was unforeseen by human kind. The law did not envisage an AGM not taking off due to force majeure (an act of God),” Justice Jaqueline Kamau observed.

 She continued: “As online banking, online schooling, online consultation and so forth are means by which people interact and achieve their objectives, there is therefore no reason why virtual space could not be recognized and/or accepted as a venue to meet and transact whatever business one may have.”

LSK then settled for July 23, 2020.

The society council agreed on May 11 to move a motion for the duo to be kicked out, claiming they failed to carry out their duty to advise Uhuru to appoint judges forwarded to him last year.

"It is just, lawful and proper that AG Kihara and the Solicitor General be expelled from the membership of the LSK as they have brought ridicule, shame, disrepute and dishonour to the office of an advocate and a member of the LSK,” the charge by the society’s top decision-making organ read in part.

Yesterday, Havi said that Kihara was an upright and judicious man in court. He said the retired judge was a good man, but the office he held before his exit ruined him.

“Service as President of the Court of Appeal and Attorney General diminished Judge’s good demeanor and legal acumen. He still called and we spoke often. I last met Judge at State House during the swearing-in of Justices Muchelule, Korir and Ngugi as Judges of the Court of Appeal, who he had advised Uhuru Kenyatta not to swear them in. Judge was a good man. The Attorney General destroyed a good man. All the same, Judge leaves an indelible mark behind. May he travel meticulously and safely to the unknown land as he did on this known land,” said Havi.

Lawyer Donald Kipkorir remembered Kihara as a rare man. “ His English & mannerisms were of upper class England. And above all, he was incorruptible. Like Caesar’s wife, he was above suspicion,” he said adding that he had not come across anyone who raised a finger to claim the Judge had been compromised.

President William Ruto eulogised the Judge as a devoted servant and remembered him for his role in the establishment of the JTI.