Advocates recall long journey to make lawyers’ roll

Ann Rose Wanjira’s hope of becoming an advocate was put off for 10 years following a freak road accident about which she hardly remembers anything.

But the ambition was finally fulfilled on Tuesday when Chief Justice Willy Mutunga admitted her, alongside 113 other law graduates, to the roll of advocates.

Sitting in the front row of one of the tents, she took her oath together with others at the Supreme Court grounds in Nairobi.

She carries a special metallic walking stick wherever she goes because – much as she can walk upright in slow, measured steps – she needs it when walking on very smooth tiles or sloppy surfaces.

She cannot climb stairs without support. Neither can she cross a road on her own.

But those limitations do not bother the 34-year-old lastborn who was raised by a single mother in Kirinyaga alongside two siblings.

“I felt I was strong enough, and I have recovered enough. I was ready to go for it. I can’t spend my whole life being sick,” she told the Sunday Nation.

The former student of Alliance Girls’ High School graduated with a law degree from the University of Nairobi in 2004.

She then proceeded for pupilage with two law firms in Nairobi.

In 2004, the year she got her degree, lawyers from public universities were exempted from the Kenya School of Law (KSL).

All one needed was a Bachelor of Law degree, an exemption letter from the KSL and evidence that they had done pupilage which involves working under an experienced lawyer for a pre-determined period.

As Wanjira was counting days to becoming an advocate, the unexpected happened.

“A car hit me as I was crossing the road and that’s the most I can remember,” she said.

GOOD CALL
The accident occurred at a bus stop in Kirinyaga on January 30, 2006.

She sustained injuries on the left side of her head and broke her left hand and leg.

She was in a coma for more than two months, spent almost half a year in hospital and spent more than three years visiting doctors at the Embu Provincial Hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital and the Kijabe Hospital.

Her recovery process involved learning to walk again.

“I’ve still not recovered totally. I can’t do the things a normal person does, like crossing a road. I also get tired pretty fast, and if I use my legs for long it is kind of painful,” she said.

She said: “Now I’m an advocate, and maybe I can try to get a job”.

Would she like to work in a law firm?

“No. I don’t know. Maybe the government or the NGO [non-governmental organisation] world,” she said.

In her dreams, Wanjira would wish to specialise in land law and perhaps help a farmer like her mother. She also hopes to get married soon and start a family.

Wanjira’s story is not the only inspiring one among the lawyers Dr Mutunga admitted to the roll of advocates last Thursday.

Sheikh Yunis Ibrahim went to school only so that his father’s cows and camels could be allowed to access the only watering point in Ashabito, Mandera.

His father, having no choice but to heed to the chief’s directive under the Chief’s Act, sent him to Ashabito Primary School, a boarding school, at the age of five.

That was in 1989 and as a result, he saved Ibrahim from the pastoralist life he would otherwise have had to bear under the unforgiving sweltering heat of Mandera.

SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY

Were it not for the chief’s directive that at least one child from each household attend school, Ibrahim would never have seen the inside of a classroom, let alone being admitted to the bar as an advocate of the High Court.

“Being in boarding school at the age of five is not an easy thing for any child. Then the fact that the community I came from was pastoralist and education was not as important as the camels, goats and cows made it really hard for any schoolgoing child,” he said.

He studied at the Ashabito Boarding Primary School for four years before his family moved to Wajir and he changed school.

He enrolled at the Wajir Township Primary School and scored high marks in his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examination, enabling him to join Wajir Secondary School.

“All this time, my father paid for my education but my three siblings remained at home,” he said, noting that the number of children in the family has since increased to eight.

In high school, Ibrahim attained a mean score of B plain and joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology to pursue a degree in Biomedicine.

He then enrolled for a masters’ degree in health systems at Kenya Methodist University.

While in university, Ibrahim was able to secure several part-time jobs that enabled him to pay school fees for four of his siblings to school.

After completing his masters’ degree, Ibrahim enrolled at the University of Nairobi to study law. He now hopes to specialise in medical law.