When stories of courage are told in Kenya, it would be a tragic mistake if Nairobi lawyer, journalist and politician Gitobu Imanyara is not mentioned.
In the last three decades, Imanyara has gone the extra mile to afflict Kenya’s powerful politicians including former Presidents Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki, the sitting President and his deputy have also had to bear with his troubling ways.
But his is not just a story of afflicting the powerful but also risking his life to comfort the afflicted.
Take the recent case where he has sued Deputy President William Ruto on behalf of Prisca Chemutai Bett - a woman seeking legal action against the DP on claims of child neglect.
Last year, Ruto sued human rights activist Boniface Mwangi for alleged defamation and while many lawyers would run away from such a charged suit, Imanyara took on the case and even filed a counter-suit against the DP.
But those who know the man who was born 63 years ago in Meru County, know that his resolve has never been shaken by power.
In 1987 when Ruto was a first-year student at the University of Nairobi, Imanyara was serving a two-year year sentence at the dreaded Kamiti Prison on politically-motivated charges by the Moi’s regime.
While still in prison, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly (currently owned by lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi).
The magazines not only earned him numerous global awards for its stand on freedoms, but it also led to numerous run-ins with the dictatorial Moi regime.
The former Central Imenti MP had also to deal with the Kibaki government after he represented a journalist who had been slapped by former First Lady Lucy Kibaki.
Representing the journalist would later land him in trouble after Lucy attacked him while attending a meeting at State House.
In 2012, Imanyara told a shocked parliament that he had been hijacked near State House by four men he believed to be policemen.
“The men asked me to kneel down facing Mt Kenya and chant ‘Uhuru Tuko Pamoja’ three times, with a machete placed at the back of my head,“ he narrated.
The narration forced then Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to come out and distance himself from the men who had attempted to force Imanyara to support his Presidential bid.
Imanyara is currently the publisher of Nairobi-based magazine - The Platform.
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