Willy Munyoki Mutunga, EGH (born 16 June 1946) is a Kenyan lawyer, intellectual, reform activist, and was the Commonwealth Special Envoy to the Maldives. He is also an active member of the Justice Leadership Group. He is the retired Chief Justice of Kenya and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya.
Background
Mutunga's father, Mzee Mutunga Mbiti, worked as a tailor in the small town of Kilonzo, Nzambani in Kitui District. He died in 1985. His mother, Mbesa Mutunga, died in 1982.
Mutunga attended Ithookwe Primary School before proceeding to Kitui School for his Kenya Certificate of Education exams. He was the first student to score six points in the exams (an "A" in all subjects), earning him a place at the Strathmore College for his "A" levels. Mutunga received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Dar Es Salaam in 1971 and a Master of Laws from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974. Mutunga joined the law faculty at the University of Nairobi as a lecturer, becoming the first indigenous Kenyan to teach constitutional law at the university level. In the late 1980s, he received his Doctorate of Laws from the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto.
On 13 May 2011, the Judicial Service Commission of KenyaThe website of the Judicial Service Commission of Kenya. recommended to President Mwai Kibaki that he appoint Mutunga as chief justice of Kenya. After consulting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kibaki made the appointment, and the National Assembly approved it on 15 June 2011. He was sworn into office on 20 June 2011. Because of Kenya's mandatory retirement age of 70, Mutunga was to leave office on a date not later than 16 June 2017.
Mutunga has been married twice. He has a son and a daughter from his first marriage. He had two other sons with different women in 1993 and 1999.
On 20 July 2000, he married professor Beverle Michele Lax in San Mateo, California. He filed for a divorce on 13 May 2010.
Roots of radical activism
More than two decades of writings, particularly in the media, reveal that Mutunga's activism was inspired by several nationalists. Among these were the anti-colonial fighter Dedan Kimathi, Kenyan activist Pio Gama Pinto, and Guinea Bissau's celebrated nationalist intellectual Amílcar Cabral.
As a law lecturer at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s and 1980s, Mutunga's activism was associated with a small but determined group of academics who identified with Marxist / Socialist ideologies, including Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Al-Amin Mazrui, Kamonji Wachira, and Maina wa Kinyatti. On 19 April 1972, this group formed the University Staff Union (USU)."Human Rights and Academic Freedom in Kenya's Public Universities: The Case of the Universities Academic Staff Union", by Korwa G. Adar, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 1, February 1999 Mutunga became the general secretary of USU in 1979, months after Daniel arap Moi succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as president and began tightening his grip on power. Mutunga immediately rallied other USU officials around a campaign for the reinstatement of Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o to his former job of teaching English and Literature at the University of Nairobi. Ngũgĩ was incarcerated by the Kenyatta government in December 1977, and although he was released in December 1978, he never returned to his job. Police arrested Mutunga on 10 June 1980, and USU was banned on 19 July 1980.Raila Odinga: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics, authored by Babafemi A. Badejo, Nairobi, Yintab Books, 2006, page 102
Mutunga's arrest threw light on the activities of a seemingly burgeoning Kenyan underground in the repressive 1980s. He was accused of being a member of the underground group known as the December Twelve Movement and of participating in the production of the movement's publication, Pambana. The police alleged they had found stamps used for mailing Pambana after searching Mutunga's house. On 12 June 1982, he was charged in court of being in possession of a "seditious" leaflet bearing the headings "J. M. Solidarity Day" and "Don't Be Fooled: Reject these Nyayos". On 29 July 1982, he was detained, just three days before 1 August 1982 abortive coup by the Air Force. He was also dismissed from his University of Nairobi job.
Activities while in Canada
Mutunga went to Canada after his release on 20 October 1983. There, he joined a group of exiled Kenyan student and intellectual activists and obtained his Doctorate of Law from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto."Why former Detainee Won Race for CJ"', Daily Nation, 13 May 2011 While pursuing his doctorate, Mutunga cooperated with other Kenyan exiles to launch the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) to further the struggle for socio-economic justice and a democratic constitutional order. Among these exiles were Kiraitu Murungi, then a law lecturer and pursuing his master's degree at Harvard Law School; and Makau W. Mutua and Maina Kiai, both United States-based anti-Moi activists.
As the cold war ended, Mutunga, like many radical African academics, made the neoliberal turn and began reconfiguring politics around a re-engineered liberal civil society.
Upon Kenya's return to multi-party democracy in 1991, Mutunga and other exiles began returning home. In 1992, the KHRC itself was relocated back to Kenya and registered in March 1994,Who We Are, Kenya Human Rights Commission starting its operations from the Chambers of Kamau Kuria and Kiraitu Murungi Advocates. It gave legal cover to an array of nongovernmental organisations in civil society that could not secure registration from the Moi government. It also served as the think tank for Kenya's pro-democracy movement.
Reforming civil society and the constitution
In 1992, Mutunga joined the ranks of the country's pro-democracy Young Turks, which included, among others, Paul Muite, James Orengo, Kiraitu Murungi, Gitobu Imanyara, and Raila Odinga.
Most of the Young Turks drifted to active politics following the formation of the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy - Kenya in 1992 as an omnibus political movement. Mutunga, however, became the chairman of the non-governmental Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), which he later also served as executive director. The KHRC supported the formation and existence of organisations such as Kituo cha SheriaThe website of Kituo cha Sheria. and the Public Law Institute.
Mutunga also retained his global intellectual networks. He served on the boards of various organisations, including the Buffalo Human Rights CenterThe website of the Buffalo Human Rights Center. at the University at Buffalo Law School, the State University of New York."Dr. Mutunga’s Brief Professional Bio", Mose Karanja
Mutunga served as vice-chairman of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) from 1991 to 1993 and chairman from 1993 to 1995. During his tenure as vice-chairman and chairman, Mutunga helped launch the LSK into activist politics,Peaceful Resistance: Advancing Human Rights And Democratic Freedoms, authored by Robert M. Press, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2006, page 113 making it appear as a more formidable opposition than the splintering opposition parties.Constitution Making From the Middle: Civil Society and Transition Politics in Kenya, 1992–1997, authored by Willy Mutunga, Sareat & Mnwengo, Nairobi, 1999
Mutunga's concept of "constitution-making from the middle" also got its practical expression during this period. Supported by a Ford Foundation grant, LSK teamed with the KHRC and the Kenya chapter of the International Commission of Jurists to produce a draft of a new constitution."Civil Society and the Democratic Experience in Kenya: A Review of Constitution-Making from the Middle: Civil Society and Transition Politics in Kenya, 1992–1997 authored by Willy Mutunga," review by Godwin R. Murunga, History Department, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, African Sociological Review, 4 (1), 2000 This project was aimed at showing that constitutional reforms were possible despite resistance by the Daniel arap Moi regime. On 6 January 1995, the constitutional caucus was renamed the Citizens' Coalition for Constitutional Change (or 4Cs) with Mutunga and Christopher Mulei as its face. The 4Cs put together a coalition of political parties and civic groups that planned for a national convention on the constitution. This initiative resulted in the formation in April 1997 of the National Constituent Assembly and its executive wing, the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC) with former dean of law, Professor Kivutha Kibwana, as its spokesperson. The NCEC organised constitution reform rallies in May, July, and August 1997. Moi responded by arguing that the government could not negotiate about constitutional reform with the civil sector, including the NCEC, that consisted of people who had no elective mandate. Members of the National Assembly bought the argument and abandoned the NCEC in favour of the newly formed Inter-Parties' Parliamentary Group (IPPG), which overtook the NCEC's initiative and allowed Moi to take control of the reform process and then emasculate it."Authoritarian Leaders and Multiparty Elections in Africa: How Foreign Donors Help to Keep Kenya's Daniel arap Moi in Power", authored by Stephen Brown, Third World Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 5, 2001. The IPPG shepherded minimal reforms before the 1997 elections and the enactment of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission Act in 1997. The NCEC, however, condemned the reforms as greatly flawed and not addressing the basic problems that caused the constitutional crisis.
Coalition building and division
Mutunga has been hailed as "an excellent negotiator". He convened the breakfast meetings of the then opposition stalwarts, Mwai Kibaki, Charity Ngilu, and Michael Wamalwa, to forge a common alliance ahead of the 2002 elections. The unity talks culminated in the creation of the National Alliance for Change as a single coalition of fourteen parties, later renamed the National Alliance Party of Kenya."The Unfolding Political Alliances and Their Implications for Kenya's Transition", authored by Willy Mutunga, in Building on Open Society: The Politics of Transition in Kenya, edited by Wanza Kioko, Lawrence M. Mute, & S. Kichamu Akivaga, Nairobi, Claripress, 2002, pages 60–97 The Alliance merged with defectors from President Daniel arap Moi's Kenya African National Union and joined the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form the National Alliance of Rainbow Coalition (NARC). Mutunga declined an offer to serve as the chairperson of NARC, saying that his main interest was to unite the opposition and not to join active politics. The NARC won the 2002 elections. After the elections, Mutunga was one of the senior counsels appointed by President Kibaki in 2003 under Section 17 of the Advocates Act.The Advocates Act of Kenya.
The NARC became the litmus gauge for Mutunga's political neutrality, which lasted as long as the coalition elite stayed united by the post-election euphoria. As soon as power wrangles between the Kibaki and Raila Odinga factions of the NARC set in after 2002, Mutunga's relations with the Kibaki administration grew frosty. On 8 April 2003, he turned down an appointment by President Kibaki to the university council of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, saying that he lacked the right qualifications for the position and was not consulted before the appointment."The Deal and Deal Makers in Kibaki's 2002 Victory – What Will the Future (2012) Bring?", authored by Kamau Ngotho, Africa Press International, 1 September 2008.