By Beauttah Omanga

Top constitutional lawyer Hastings Okoth-Ogendo is dead.

Ogendo, who played a key role in the Bomas draft constitution, died on Friday evening at an Ethiopian hospital where he was taken after developing respiratory complications.

His son, Rodney, said his mother, Ruth, had accompanied Ogendo to an international land policy conference. She was by his bedside when he died.

Top constitutional lawyer Hastings Okoth-Ogendo died on Friday in Ethiopia.

"We are yet to establish what killed him but reports we have indicate he developed complications after taking a meal," said Rodney.

Speaking to The Standard on Sunday at the family home in Karen, Nairobi, Rodney said Ogendo first complained of fever but started having respiratory problems soon after.

"My mother alerted the hotel management that organised to have him taken to hospital. He was then immediately admitted to the hospital’s ICU," he said.

Sudden ailment

He said his mother then called the family to inform them of the sudden ailment. She even called the family doctor and requested him to make flight arrangements to bring Ogendo urgently back to Nairobi. But efforts by the Ethiopian doctors to save his life failed and he died hours after his admission.

"I have lost a friend, my confidant and a role model in my law career," said Rodney, who holds a masters degree in Law.

He said his father left the country a week ago to attend the conference in Ethiopia. "He told me the conference was to come up with a common land policy that would apply to all African countries," he recalled.

Upon his return, Ogendo was scheduled to give public lectures at various universities in South Africa early next month, said Rodney.

"He had already started working on the papers he was to present in South Africa ," said Rodney.

He said his father had requested Ruth to accompany him to Ethiopia to spend a few days on holiday after the conference.

Relatives overcome by grief at Prof Okoth-Ogendo’s Karen home, Nairobi, Saturday.

Yesterday, a sombre mood engulfed the Ogendo home as relatives streamed in.

A group of University of Nairobi lecturers assembled under the chairmanship of Dr Ed Rege to plan the transportation of Ogendo’s body back home.

Until his death, Ogendo was a law lecturer at the University of Nairobi and served as Constitution of Kenya Review Commission vice chairman. The commission was chaired by Prof Yash Pal Ghai. He also served as chairman of African Population Advisory Council board of directors from 1993 and Insurance Appeals Tribunal since 1993. He was a board member of the National Council for Population and Development.