Former High Court Judge Alex Etyang dies

 

Former High Court Judge Alex Etyang. [File, Standard]

Former High Court Judge Alex Etyang is dead. The immediate former Legal Advisor to Governor Sospeter Ojaamong was pronounced dead by doctors at Amukura Mission Hospital on Sunday.

He had earlier been rushed to the facility after collapsing at his Kotur village home in Teso South constituency.

He had served in Ojaamong’s administration for four years. The soft spoken Justice Etyang was chairing a funeral committee organising the burial of his close friend the late Professor Moses Imo, the Dean Faculty of Natural Resources and Energy University of Eldoret who died after a short illness.

Governor Ojaamong said the death of Justice Etyang was a big loss not only to the family and friends but to the country and all those who knew him especially in the legal fraternity.

He was the first judge to come from the Teso region.

“He was a brilliant legal mind who discharged his duties diligently at the bar and when I bought him on board to assist me on certain things in the county government,” said Ojaamong.

Lawyer Gervase Akhaabi described the late as a person who took his work seriously and very unassuming.

“He took his work seriously and that earned him an appointment as a judge of the HighCourt,” said Akhaabi. 

He was appointed as a Judge in 1996 by the former retired President Daniel Arap Moi.

“I knew him right from the days he was in the office of Attorney General Charles Njonjo’s office as State Council he served in many parts of the country as a prosecutor,” Akhaabi added.

Former Vice Chairman of defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya Gabriel Mukele also condoled with the family of the Etyang. He described the late justice saying he was a shrewd judge when he was still in the judiciary.

Justice Etyang was among the 11 High Court judges who avoided facing a tribunal to defend themselves against allegations of graft and abuse of office by opting to resign in 2003.

Justice Aaron Ringera investigated corruption in the judiciary and 23 judges were implicated in his report which he handed over to President Mwai Kibaki. The body was taken to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.