Charles Kanjama, Senior Counsel, was elected as the 7th president of the Law Society of Kenya on the 19th February, 2026. He is a throwback to previous chairmen of the Law Society who could not be trusted to take a firm stand if it meant taking a stand against the excesses of the government of the day. Instead, they would find well-reasoned arguments for why their hands were tied and how Kenyans should seek succour from other institutions of government like the police, the statutory human rights organisations, national and international NGOs and, when all those had failed, the Law Society. In their minds, the Law Society was always the last resort.
Little of the campaign for the LSK presidency was interesting. All the candidates, regardless of their human rights bona fides, were united in one mission though: the construction of Wakili Tower, a multi-million shillings white elephant "to be financed out of contributions by members". Since the Erick Mutua presidency, every single LSK council has assiduously worked towards a grand real estate project. First it was at the LSK's South C property and now it is the Gitanga Road HQ that is being turned into a construction site.
Focus for Mr. Kanjama and his new council, will be on the construction of Wakili Tower and anything that draws focus away from it, like human rights campaigns, will receive only a cursory glance, if at all. The Law Society is a pale shadow of the force of nature it was in the 1980s when its leadership and its members risked life, limb, freedom and livelihoods to campaign for the rights of prisoners of conscience and other victims of human rights abuses by the state and agents of the state.
The outgoing president, Ms. Faith Odhiambo, did her best with a dying Law Society. She led a brave campaign in 2024 to hold the government accountable for enforced disappearances, unlawful detentions, malicious prosecutions and other forms of state-sanctioned criminality. But it was clear that she stood mostly alone; few of the members of her council were as publicly committed as she was and fewer of the LSK branches were as dedicated as she was. Mr. Kanjama has inherited a presidency that is no longer a beacon of hope for the oppressed.
The decline of the Law Society can be traced, ironically, to the triumphal election of Mwai Kibaki in December 2002. His election pulled the wool over our eyes that because Kanu had been defeated, Kanu-ism was over. Instead, Mr. Kibaki moved swiftly to consolidate his political power and one way he did this was to co-opt the leadership and senior members of the Law Society into governmental institutions culminating in the biggest prize of them all: chairman of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board which heard disputes between the government and private contractors where billions of shillings were at stake. Needless to say, the rule of law provided a very wide fig leaf to hide the alleged corruption in the Kibaki regime that ensued.
Dozens of lawyers became fabulously wealthy because of the contracts they won from the government. The Law Society became quieter and quieter even as Kenyans continued to be abducted and murdered by policemen and intelligence officers. Mr. Kanjama does not inspire confidence that he will lead the Law Society to reclaim its role in holding the government to account for the acts of omission and commission of the government and agents of the government that have led to the loss of life, grievous injuries, corruption and human rights abuses.
Members of the Law Society also do not seem interested in rebuilding the image of the Law Society. They have been sold a bill of goods that the Law Society is a "trade union for lawyers" and that the Law Society should focus more in ensuring "better terms for lawyers" as if the Advocates Remuneration Order did not exist and ignoring the fact that the practice of law before the courts is the exclusive, monopolistic preserve of the members the Law Society in good standing.
The Law Society is an anachronism. It is time we admitted this to ourselves, repealed the Law Society of Kenya Act, abolished the Law Society in its current iteration, and rebuilt the Law Society anew as a professional body of advocates holding its members to the highest professional and ethical standards - and campaigning with vim and vigour for the highest attainable standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
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