Highs and lows of Amos Wako

By Wahome Thuku

 

The naming of Amos Wako as Attorney General by President Moi on May 13, 1991 was probably the best thing to happen to the country then.

The country was at its lowest ebb with the incarceration of reform agitators and the death of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko.

Wako’s predecessor Mathew Guy Muli had by then been branded a spent force over his non-performance and indecisiveness on matters critical facing the country.

On April 11, 1991, Wako was the vice-chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, a position that catapulted his international rating as a human rights defender.

Like other appointees then, Wako was named AG through the one o’clock news bulletin.

He was in a meeting of the Kenya Airways Board when someone whispered to him that he was the new AG. And the rest is history.

Within a month, several political and constitutional changes had taken place. Political detainees including Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia were released. By December 1991, Section 2A of the Constitution had been scrubbed and the country reverted to multiparty system.

Wako’s earliest challenge was in the transition to pluralism. Starting with the registration of Ford on December 31, 1991 and the subsequent registration of Democratic Party, Ford Asili, Ford Kenya among others, Wako’s role was critical. All the way, he basked in the limelight in his capacity as chief Government advisor.

Wako was born on July 31, 1945. He was admitted to the bar in 1970 after graduating from University of East Africa in 1969. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and masters of Laws from University of London.

 

Chairman

 

He worked for Kaplan & Stratton from March 1969 and became a Partner from April 1972 to May 1991 when he was appointed Attorney General. Wako served as LSK chairman from 1979 to 1981. He was also held numerous positions in regional and global bodies dealing with constitutional and governance affairs.

Wako participated in minimum constitutional and other legal reforms throughout the last decade of the Kanu rule.

He played his cards well after the transition from Kanu to Narc in December 2002 and was retained by the new regime. When the two parties entered into a tussle over the ownership of the KICC, Wako helped the Government to repossess the property.

But the Kibaki regime has also been Wako’s undoing. The AG has consistently been at cross-paths with the police force over investigations and prosecution of cases and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission among other State agencies.

He is accused of protecting the status quo and of being largely part of the culture of impunity. Several years ago Wako came to the forefront after using his constitutional powers to take over and terminate criminal cases against specific individuals.

He has been accused of laxity in managing criminal prosecutions as well as high profile suits filed against the Government. Some of the cases have included mega scandals like the Goldenberg scandal, and the Anglo leasing in which the Government lost millions of shillings.

It’s no wonder then that soon after the promulgation of the Constitution, Wako relinquished his role of public prosecutions and handed it over to then acting Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko.

In 2005, the Wako draft constitution, which the AG had helped to put in place, was defeated in a referendum and that point that Wako’s star began to dim rather quickly.

 

Barred

 

The draft was closely associated with him and so was the defeat. One of his other lowest moment was in 2009 when he was officially barred by the US government from ever visiting the country for allegedly being an obstacle to reforms.

The passing of the new Constitution last year was Wako’s closing moment of fulfillment having worked and followed the reforms for 20 years. It’s one that might have even cleansed him of all the other ills of the two decades. Ironically, the very same Constitution broadened his smile, closed his chapter and ordered that he must leave the State Law office but not without a legacy of sorts.