The Untold Story of Willy Mutunga’s Reluctant Involvement in Kenyan Politics

For most Kenyans, former Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga is the calm and collected man who gave the Judiciary a common man’s touch.

This would explain the shock that followed after the media erroneously reported that Mutunga was considering going for political office under the Ukweli Party of Kenya.

Kenyans.co.ke embarked on a research mission, dating as far back as 1977 to bring you the untold story of Mutunga’s political experiences that may explain his reluctance to become a politician.

As a young lecturer, Mutunga had earned a name for himself as the bold union leader who served as Secretary General of the University Staff Union (USU) who at one time led a strike calling for the reinstatement of his colleague, Prof Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, who had been fired from the University of Nairobi due to his criticism of the Kenyatta regime.

As the country debates the imprisonment of officials in the doctors’ union, many will be interested in learning that in 1977, Mutunga entered the history books as the second Kenyan who was jailed for leading a union strike in independent Kenya.

The highlight of the former Chief Justice’s involvement in politics was in 2002 when he chaired a number of talk sessions that brought together Opposition leaders including Mwai Kibaki, Kijana Wamalwa, and Charity Ngilu.

His negotiation skills are credited for bringing together the NARC team, so much so that they even offered him to become their Chairman – he declined the position, insisting that he was only interested in unifying the Opposition leaders against KANU.

Despite Mutunga’s crucial role in the formation of NARC, the coalition did not last long as Kibaki reneged on his promise to his partners.

This may have contributed to Mutunga’s decline of a State job (member of University Council of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology) that President Kibaki offered him in 2003.

In 2012, Mutunga found himself in the eye of another political storm after it was reported that he would preside over the launch of lawyer Miguna Miguna’s book that had been critical of then-Prime Minister Raila Odinga - he later declined to attend the event.