Kenya’s judiciary will entertain a new dressing code that will allow judges and lawyers to wear studs or even dreadlocks, Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga announced on Facebook and Twitter.
While responding to queries on the social media concerning the dressing code, the CJ noted that “the Judges of the Supreme Court have agreed that we have no issues with anyone appearing before the Supreme Court, wearing their studs.
“Our position is that as long as officers of the court – both lawyers and judges can appear smart, a stud – or indeed dreadlocks – should not hinder the administration of justice.”
Dr Mutunga says the Supreme Court judges will not be wearing colonial wigs and robes.
“We will encourage the Court of Appeal and the High Court to review the dress code there. We will dialogue with them and the LSK and we expect the public to participate in the debate”.
Source-Nation Daily
About Dr. Willy Mutunga
Willy Munyoki Mutunga (born 16 June 1946) is a Kenyan lawyer, intellectual, reform activist, and was the Commonwealth Special Envoy to the Maldives. He is also an active member of the Justice Leadership Group. He is the retired Chief Justice of Kenya and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya.
Mutunga’s father, Mzee Mutunga Mbiti, worked as a tailor in the small town of Kilonzo, Nzambani in Kitui District. He died in 1985. His mother, Mbesa Mutunga, died in 1982.[1]
Mutunga attended Ithookwe Primary School before proceeding to Kitui School for his Kenya Certificate of Education exams.[2] He was the first student to score six points in the exams (an “A” in all subjects), earning him a place at the Strathmore College for his “A” levels.
Mutunga received a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Dar Es Salaam in 1971 and a Master of Laws from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974.
Mutunga joined the law faculty at the University of Nairobi as a lecturer, becoming the first indigenous Kenyan to teach constitutional law at the university level.
In the late 1980s, he received his Doctorate of Laws from the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto.
On 13 May 2011, the Judicial Service Commission of Kenya[Note 1] recommended to President Mwai Kibaki that he appoint Mutunga as chief justice of Kenya.
After consulting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kibaki made the appointment, and the National Assembly approved it on 15 June 2011.
He was sworn into office on 20 June 2011. Because of Kenya’s mandatory retirement age of 70, Mutunga was to leave office on a date not later than 16 June 2017.
Mutunga has been married twice. He has a son and a daughter from his first marriage. He had two other sons with different women in 1993 and 1999.
On 20 July 2000, he married professor Beverle Michele Lax in San Mateo, California. He filed for a divorce on 13 May 2010.
Source-https://en.wikipedia.org/
Kenya CJ allows lawyers to wear studs and dreadlocks
Among the many things Africans have copied from the West are the clothes we wear today, the means of transport we use and the education we ae using in our daily lives. It is therefore in my own opinion, inappopriate to dismiss the wig as a adressing code for the Judges, on the excuse that, it is foreign and Western. If Dr. Willy Mutunga is trying to Justify his wearing of ear rings in court, he should not beat about the Bush, and instead he should be straight foreward and say, “I cannot avoid wearing ear rings whenever I am”. Nevrtheless, he should remember how much controversy the matter generated when he fist wore ear rings in cout. But then, I am afraid to say that this new controversy that has been initiated by Dr. Mutunga, may dillute the hopes which Kenyans had just developed for the Kenyan judiciary recently. Kenyans had high hopes that the new appointees of the judiciary will address more important issues and obstacles that have caused a lot of suffering to Kenyans. Kenyans are still in agony. The unemployment,hunger, inflation and corruption continues to hurt Kenyans. Why waste time on petty issue like stud, deadlock and wig when there are more pressing issues?. This is not what Kenyas expects from the new Judiciary.
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