OPINION: Wanted: LSK president with balls of steel

Early last month, I attended the Lower Eastern Advocate Forum’s Mwali wa Asili annual dinner hosted at a Machakos hotel.

As a brand-new secondhand member of the profession, I was initially hesitant to confirm my participation until the chair of the Nairobi Law Society of Kenya branch, the indefatigable Eric Kivuva, pushed me to it.

Every notable legal mind practising, residing, or originating from Lower Eastern—including all my mentors—was in attendance. Where else could I have been other than with them, to revel in tales of their legal conquests, plans, hopes, and fears?

Quite apart from the camaraderie, which swept the night away, another spectacle was unfolding. The candidates for the various LSK positions on offer at the February 19 council election were literally prostrating themselves before us, begging for votes.

Candidates for president, vice president, general member representative, Nairobi, upcountry and Coast representatives toppled over themselves, in speech and act, to please us.

I thought Charles Kanjama was cut in alabaster until I saw him twirling dangerously to Alex Kasau's Katombi latest tune. The Senior Counsel did not miss a beat.

With his in-laws only a stone’s throw away, Peter “Ongurapus” Wanyama struck an unusual modesty. Still, he could not resist the beguiling, fast-paced concord of sweet Kamba music.

Except for his fade beard, Mwaura Kabata would have passed for the Congolese crooner Kanda Bongo Man. Dressed in Byzantium violet garb and a black hat, he comically lifted his leg, gyrating it to Franco Kisasi’s Stella tune.

The three gentlemen are worthy competitors in the race to replace the impressive outgoing president, Faith Mony Odhiambo.

To complete the Machakos ensemble, the rest of the candidates—the “others”—staged an exhilarating joint act in which Bosire Bonyi stood out. The general member representative candidate was gliding across the stage as the others tromped and jerked about themselves.

The talents on display that night were massive. They spoke too, but you could hardly tell them apart in policy and outlook. It was much easier to tell them apart from dance moves than from the ideas they were proposing to bring to the table.

Granted, the country has an acute shortage of advocates who can dance and stage good-humoured shows. The matters they deal with daily are heavy and debilitating to the spirit.

However, at the inflection point the country finds itself in, the Law Society of Kenya requires more than agile hoofers for leaders. There is no other period when the Society comes alive more than the one we are entering.

Under the LSK Act, the Society is mandated to assist the government and the courts in matters relating to legislation and the administration of justice, upholding the constitution, advancing the rule of law, and protecting and assisting Kenyans on matters of law.

With a high-stakes election due in months, Kenyans will need an unfaltering man at the helm of LSK. A double dosage of what Madam Faith has offered the country over the last two years is required.

Besides its outward-facing public mandate, the Society is mandated to look inward into matters of practice. In the recent past, there has been a hue and cry over the quality of training, professional standards, prestige, and welfare of members.

For ages, the affairs of one of the country’s noblest professions have been presided over in a condemned facility. The very sight of Gitanga Road LSK headquarters, and its corrugated mabati patch-ups, is as repulsive as it is sickening.

There are far too many women’s groups and village chamas with better buildings than our statutorily established Society. What a shame!

The overwhelming feeling is that the Society has, over the years, done so much for the country and forgotten about its own members’ welfare. The new council must then find the appropriate balance between these important mandates.

It behoves the Society membership to go for a leader with balls of steel and a supporting cast-council with a strong inclination for tough decisions.

Musau, an Advocate of the High Court is a Senior Project Manager with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation & Member, Media Complaints Commission. The views expressed here are his own