Factchecking Njonjo: Did he in fact despise promising African lawyers?

Duncan Mindo is the author of Without Fear or Favour, published in 2019. The book documents his colourful career in law that began in the 1960s. He was appointed the first African state counsel in charge of the expansive former Rift Valley Province shortly after graduating from law school in 1967. His boss was Charles Njonjo.

After reading the “stock obituaries” published this week — more about stock obituaries later — he called to say he could not find “anything written from any person who interacted with Mr Njonjo at the professional level, either in the government or outside the government”. He wondered how journalists could reach the conclusion that Mr Njonjo detested African lawyers without interviewing any of those he worked with. I reserved my response and let him continue:

“I wish to correct the impression given by some of the write-ups that Njonjo did not like African lawyers. I am an African lawyer. I was a State Counsel in the Attorney-General’s Chambers between 1967 and 1970. Mr Njonjo sent me to be a Provincial State Counsel for Nyanza and Western provinces, based in Kisumu, then to Rift Valley. I was the first African lawyer to man the provinces.

“I am not out to defend Mr Njonjo. As a provincial state counsel, I had occasions to meet him, man to man, to discuss issues relating to the work in the provinces. At no time did he seem to treat me differently from other state counsels, most of whom were not African, in other provinces or at the headquarters.

“I used to meet Mr Njonjo to discuss various national issues — such as the prosecution of the late MP Jean-Marie Seroney, the implications of The Outlying Districts Act (repealed in 1997) as people were arrested for going to eat meat at Ongata Rongai in the closed Kajiado District, or when they went to buy goats from Mogotio in the closed Baringo District, and so on. He was not as aloof as the obituary writers have depicted him. But he insisted on keeping the boundaries, socially, politically and professionally.

“I recall, in one of my many meetings with Mr Njonjo, he said my hair, which was always long and, consequently, difficult to properly comb, did not ‘look good’. I said I was born with it. We both laughed and closed the topic.”

Mr Mindo continued with his episodes. But the main point he was making is that, in writing the stock obituaries journalists, failed readers by not interviewing lawyers who worked with Mr Njonjo. It’s a valid point.

Journalists fail when they write stock obituaries that peddle urban myths. They have plenty of time to check them for accuracy. 

Stock obituaries are written months, sometimes years, before the person dies. News organisations write stock obituaries so that they have enough time to research, fact-check and edit and, when the person dies, they can immediately publish in-depth stories about his life. In the trade, they are also called “advance obituaries” or “advancers”. 

As Mr Mindo points out, the stock stories concerning Mr Njonjo’s attitude on African lawyers were not researched. Hardly any evidence was provided. Evidence is obtained from sources. A journalist can’t be the evidence unless he is telling something he or she has personally witnessed or experienced. 

By mid-week, the Nation had published nearly 20 stories totalling more than 20,000 words. But unlike the Standard and The Star, which devoted entire articles to the assertions that Njonjo despised up-and-coming African lawyers, the Nation articles made only a brief mention of that. 

In the stock article “Kibaki and Njonjo: Two Muthaiga neighbours who don’t see eye to eye”, published on Sunday, the day Mr Njonjo died, the following appears: “He was an Englishman in black skin. As AG, he never liked or believed in Africans, and made it his business to ensure no black person came near gaining influence in the Kenyan Judiciary. He also seized every opportunity to frustrate budding African lawyers whose mastery of the English language, let alone the law, he doubted.”

The writer did not interview anyone to support the claim. Yet it’s widely accepted in the profession that journalists are only as good as their sources and their stories are only as good as the sources they use.

The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.