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Eric Theuri: New LSK boss on surviving 2007 chaos, vision for lawyers’ body

 

Deliberate. That is the impression Eric Theuri, the president-elect of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), creates when you interview him. He chooses carefully the words he utters.

He pauses often, and you can see him form a sentence in his mind before speaking it out. It is more like what lawyers do when making a submission in court.

And when we ask the 43-year-old to relive his experience of the 2007 post-election violence, where his family’s house and another rental house were razed because they were people from Central living among people from Western — political rivals in that election — he is reflective but doesn’t let emotion mar his expressions.

“I now know how long a night can be,” he says. “When you are awake because you fear for your life and you don’t know when an attack can come, a night is a very, very, very long time. It’s like two days.”

The 2007 General Election happened two years after he had been admitted to the bar. Though he was practising in Nairobi, he had travelled to Kakamega, where his family had lived for years and where his two younger siblings were born, for the polls. It almost cost his life.

As ethnic cleansing took root as a result of the disputed election, a time came when “outsiders” became targets. It didn’t matter what one had done or not done. It didn’t matter how long one had lived there. If you were an outsider, you were a target.

Even police took sides and at some point scared “outsiders” in the area Mr Theuri lived. They were denied entry into a police station, the only place they thought they could be secure.

Three times, Mr Theuri attempted to travel from Kakamega to Kisumu to board an aeroplane to Nairobi, helped by friendly locals, but he couldn’t manage. Information could reach them that there was danger ahead and they would make an about-turn to Kakamega. Roadblocks kept springing up on roads where every motorist had to show their identity. A name associated with an “enemy” tribe was enough to see one butchered.

Mr Theuri’s father Justin Njeru, a native of Embu County, had decided to make the bustling locality of Amalemba in Lurambi, Kakamega County, his home. His wife, Perpetual Muthoni, was working at the Kakamega Provincial General Hospital and they found Western Kenya welcoming — at least before politics showed them another side. They ran a dairy farm, owned matatus, bought property and even had a rental property house near Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. They almost lost it all in the post-poll chaos.

Luckily for Mr Theuri’s family, they had friendly neighbours who protected them all they could. One neighbour offered them a servant’s quarters. But this could not save their house from being torched.

For Mr Theuri, who ironically had just returned from Rwanda and witnessed the lasting ugliness of the 1994 genocide, this was a trying moment.

He would spend his days among the Kikuyu in a camp and nights in the homestead of a friendly local.

“He risked his life by hosting a Kikuyu,” recalls Mr Theuri.

Eric Theuri

Law Society of Kenya Nairobi branch chairman Eric Theuri during an interview at his office in Upper Hill, Nairobi on February 13, 2022.

Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

When the blood-letting subsided, he finally made his way to the Kisumu International Airport but even then he had to evade the main roads for the better part of the journey.

Because his family was into matatu business, he had made friends with a number of drivers and conductors, and these were instrumental in keeping him out of harm’s way whenever he tried to reach the airport. They had nicknamed him Sketch. At the airport, he met many shaken people who could not wait for their turn to fly to Nairobi.

“There was no booking of flights or seats. You just arrived and took the available flight. Once full, it would take off and leave the anxious crowd waiting for its return,” Eric says in a story about the ordeal on his campaign website.

His family eventually left Kakamega, but he has fond memories of the place. He remembers his days at Kakamega Primary School then later at Kakamega Township Primary School.

He recalls his streak as a bright yet mischievous child who struggled with mathematics and loathed home science and its “womanly” assignments like sewing and all. Many were the times he would sneak out of class to lay traps in bushes. Sometimes, teachers would send colleagues to look for him.

He was adept at trapping quails, shooting down birds with a catapult and also hunting with dogs. Kakamega Forest was often the theatre of his hunting exploits.

“I associated freely with the rich and the poor children,” recalls Mr Theuri, noting that his family was quite comfortable financially. 

But the memorable stay in the Western region ended on a life-and-death note.

“Politics changes people in ways that you cannot even comprehend. Someone with whom you’ve been friends for so long will say things and do things that will shock you,” he says.

“Sometimes when you think about it, you feel as if we cannot be helped as a country. Because our leaders have perfected the art of tribal manipulation and we have embraced our tribes to such a deep extent that logic cannot defeat the tribe. Leaders who have failed to deliver, time and time again, will just rebrand themselves, get into a new political outfit, and promise to deliver the same things that they have been promising but have failed to deliver despite having been in power for several years. But we will believe them because they have just rebranded,” rants the lawyer.

“When you look at it, you almost get the feeling that we cannot be assisted because we have failed and we consistently fail to assist ourselves,” he adds.

Past LSK presidents

Mr Theuri also gets apprehensive when he hears leaders tread dangerously on the line of ethnic division ahead of the August election. More so, the recent claims of past election rigging make him uneasy.

“When you begin to look at all that, you start getting the fear that the sounds are beginning to slowly emerge. The drumbeats of war are beginning to slowly come out,” says the lawyer.

“It is, in my view, morally wrong and irresponsible to put the country on jitters. We have to break from the past. We cannot be holding the country hostage at every electioneering period,” he adds.

Neutral. That is what Mr Theuri wants LSK to be in relation to Kenya’s political landscape. He believes that past LSK bosses whose tenures are held in high regard are those that kept the society politically non-aligned.

“Or even if they were politically aligned, they were aligned to a cause that was to champion the rule of law and the administration of justice and constitutionalism in the country,” he says.

However, he believes that an LSK president should be innately an activist.

“If you do not wish to be an activist, then you have no place becoming a president of the Law Society of Kenya. But besides being an activist, you must also have other skills because not every challenge will be solved through activism,” he says.

Past LSK presidents include Paul Muite, Willy Mutunga, Nzamba Kitonga, Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Raychelle Omamo, Tom Ojienda, and the late Mutula Kilonzo. Presidents hold office for a two-year non-renewable term. The outgoing president, Mr Nelson Havi, has been at the helm since 2020 and he has since joined elective politics.

After winning the elections on March 10, Mr Theuri will be taking over as the LSK president on Friday. He wants the body of 12,544 registered members to take a firm stand against corruption in the Judiciary and the executive.

He believes that when LSK becomes politically neutral, it makes it harder for the government and other interested parties to divide it.

“They will not have any entry because you will not be engaging in partisan political brinkmanship,” he says.

Eric Theuri

Law Society of Kenya Nairobi branch chairman Eric Theuri during an interview at his office in Upper Hill, Nairobi on February 13, 2022.

Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

As he takes over, top of his mind is an ongoing statutory audit of LSK whose results are expected this coming week.

“Once that report comes out, it is going to settle the anxiety that is in the membership with regards to the financial health of the law society,” he says. “That, for me, is likely to be a defining moment because it will order our steps in terms of how we engage with the membership and the things that we intend to do for the membership.”

He takes over the LSK reins at a time when it is dogged by wrangles and controversies. Having been the chair of the Nairobi branch of LSK and having served in various committees of the law society over the past few years, he knows too well the problems that loom.

“We plan to come up with a largely consultative strategic plan in terms of where we want to move our society to, and ensure that we have a strong secretariat that is well-positioned to offer services to members and sustain the activities of the council,” says Mr Theuri.

And he understands why the government would be happy to see a disjointed LSK.

“Some of the things that the law society says, because of the credibility it enjoys, would make the government extremely uncomfortable. There are so many avenues and so many international lobbying platforms that are available for use by the law society and which the government takes a little bit much more seriously,” he reasons. “They may want to influence you on that aspect because they do not want the bad press.”

Big-hearted. That emerges of Mr Theuri when asked about the cases he is most proud of. Having been in the bar for 17 years, he has handled a number of cases. As the boss of the Nairobi LSK branch, he has instigated the filing of many lawsuits.

Among those is the challenge against a government directive that State agencies shouldn’t engage lawyers without the Attorney-General’s consent. There is also the case about what lawyers should reveal about proceeds of crime.

However, he is most satisfied with the cases which he has done for free — or “pro-bono” as they are called in legal circles.

“There are cases which we have taken on board on a pro-bono basis: someone who had not committed a crime, who was maybe just at the wrong place at the wrong time and they can’t afford a lawyer. And they would have been convicted if they didn’t have a lawyer. When you help those kinds of people and they can hardly pay you, it’s just their gratitude; the gratitude of the entire clan when the court says they are not guilty,” he says. “No amount of fee can give me such satisfaction.”

Philosophical. This side of Mr Theuri comes out as he discusses a number of issues in the interview we are having in his office in Nairobi. From an early age, he was exposed to the works of Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, among others. Those sparked his interest in law, which he studied at Moi University after excelling at Kakamega High School.

Gender representation

He also liked Karl Marx but did not subscribe to his views on violence. Martin Luther King, he says, is the one he would love to meet first if that opportunity ever arose: “I just found him inspirational. He had a short life but it was extremely impactful.”

Mr Theuri says he was mentored to a great extent by his father. Being the firstborn, he had to take responsibility quite early and there was a time his father placed him in charge of the dairy cows on the farm. He also took charge of various sides of the matatu business. Engaging in those activities taught him a lot about money and also how to interact with players in the matatu industry; some that can be downright crude.

So, what does he know about money?

“You know, money comes and goes. It’s a good thing to have money, but I think there are more important things in life than just having money. So, it’s good to be able to be comfortable; to be able to take care of yourself and your family and give them a comfortable life. But it’s also important to touch people’s lives; how you make them perceive you,” says the father of two boys, adding that a saving culture is also key to living a comfortable life.

Rational. That emerges of Mr Theuri when we are talking about gender representation in the LSK. In the outgoing council, there were 10 women and three men. The new team has 10 men and three women.

“I don’t think it’s because people were uncomfortable with the ladies. I think it’s down to the number of candidates that were there. There were fewer lady candidates this time and I think maybe also the number of ladies that were vying were largely unknown; so it may have tipped the scales in favour of the men,” he explains.

The March 10 election came after a demanding campaign for Mr Theuri. He had to take numerous flights and travel to various corners of the country to engage other lawyers.

“It wasn’t easy, but it also has its positives in the sense of the connections we make with people, the feedback that you get: sometimes positive, sometimes negative. And people challenging you on your views and improving your views. That definitely makes it much more exciting to be part of,” says Mr Theuri.

Outgoing. That becomes apparent of Mr Theuri when he discusses what he does for leisure. Does he golf like most people of his calibre should?

“I have tried golf. I don’t think I have the patience,” he says, laughing. “But maybe one day I’ll try and do that.”

“I love travelling, going to new places. I do a bit of reading but I’ve not been doing that extremely well, and I hope I can get back to being able to sit and read a book for about an hour or so. Of course, I do enjoy going out to a club and dancing and listening to music,” he adds.

And what is his favourite genre?

“I’m a rhumba fan,” he replies pronto.    BY DAILY NATION   

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