I mourn my Law School prefect, CJ Martha Koome on lawyer Evans Monari

Chief Justice Martha Koome mourns Evans Monari as an astute lawyer. [File, Standard]

Chief Justice Martha Koome has eulogised the late lawyer Evans Monari as a “gallant and astute” legal practitioner.

Monari died on Monday night, October 4, at the Nairobi Hospital after a long illness, family spokesperson Ken Monari said.

According to Koome, Evans played an important role in organising the ceremony to celebrate 34 judges, who were promoted in June this year.

Describing Evans as a person who was “always jovial with a deep sense of humour”, Koome, in her statement on Tuesday, said: “My last interaction with him was in July this year when in his jovial manner, took the lead in organising a wonderful felicitation for me and other colleagues, who were promoted to various positions in the Judiciary.

“In him lay this gallant and astute lawyer who represented the high, mighty and even poor clients who consulted him with equal measure and professionalism,” added Koome.

The CJ revealed that Evans was her classmate and prefect at the Kenya School of Law, 1987 class.

“For the School of Law ’87, we mourn Evans, our prefect and leader who sacrificed his time and other resources to ensure that we were fully coordinated to offer support to one another, especially times of bereavement and other upheavals,” she said.

Monari was an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and was a partner in Coulson Harney Advocates, where he headed the dispute resolution and arbitration department.

He goes down in history for representing former police commissioner Hussein Ali, who faced crimes against humanity charges at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) following the 2007-08 post-election violence in Kenya.

Various leaders, among them President Uhuru Kenyatta, have mourned the late Evans Monari, describing him as “one of the leading lawyers in the country”.