IF you are a man with a fragile ego and are easily piqued by Gladys Boss Shollei’s personality type, then stand up and look yonder: She is coming back. The former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, who was controversially sacked amid a hail of controversial corruption allegations, is planning a major comeback in public life, but she is cagey on the exact role. “It will be big, bolder and better,” is how the 46-year-old mother of four describes her impending return to public life.
“Definitely I will be back soon in a bigger way: I like serving the people and still have a lot of energy. One thing is for sure - that I am now smarter.” Before her sacking she waged a bare-knuckle battle with a group of six colleagues – all men - styling themselves as Chief Justice Willy Mutunga’s ‘War Council’. “The key point in this war is that the judiciary is an institution of judges who dispense justice, not administrators who buy things,” Dennis Kabaara, a member of the Council, famously said in a series of secret emails that contained the 30-point anti-Shollei blueprint that eventually saw her out. Does she scare men?
“Yes,” she responds firmly, with a self-assured look, “but only the insecure ones; those with fragile egos, who equate my self-confidence with arrogance.” Quoting author Marianne Williamson, Shollei says: “I don’t have to shrink for others to feel secure. Their insecurity is not my problem.” The girl who grew up milking family cows then vowed never to be a farmer. Ironically, she now loves farming and boasts dairy cows on her Eldoret farm. “My mum laughs when she hears that I am a dairy farmer. I kept telling her that I will never be a farmer because of the many hours we spent working on the farm and milking our own cows. It was bad...We worked so hard that our hands were swollen with blisters,” she said.
The name “Boss” has nothing to do with her personality. “It is my maiden name, it is my father’s name and means ‘bald’ in her Kalenjin dialect. Neither of her parents reached form four but they achieved well above their dreams out of sheer determination and discipline. When Chris Hani, an anti-apartheid hero and outstanding freedom fighter, was killed in 1993, she was in South Africa, studying for her Master’s of Law degree at Cape Town University. In solidarity with the Black community, she joined a series of demonstrations that were organised to protest the killing. “I was the only woman and black person in all-white Master’s class,” she says, noting that it helped boost her confidence levels.
IN FIVE MINUTES
I’ve had a very difficult relationship with the JSC
1970: Born in Eldoret
1982: After her sitting her CPE at Hill School, Eldoret, she joined Loreto Girls in Matunda for her ‘O’-levels and later Moi Girls in Eldoret for her ‘A’- levels between 1985 and 1986.
1988: She joined the University of Nairobi, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in law in 1991.
1993: Cape Town University for a Master’s in Law degree specialising in Maritime Environment Law.
2001: Joined the National Council of Law Reporting as assistant editor, rising to the position of CEO by 2003.
2007: Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology, Master’s degree in Management.
2009: Independent Interim Electoral Commission, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer.
2013: Chief Registrar of the Judiciary.
QUOTES
2013: “I have had a very difficult relationship with the JSC. The issue of allowances has put me in the problems that I am in with the commission right now. I have sometimes let the commissioners have their way so that I get to work. The more I put my foot down, the more I got into trouble,” she said when she accused some JSC members of interfering in her work
2014: “I have had difficult relations with Abdullahi [city lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi] for the past several months now. He openly told me to forget about getting the building, instead telling me ‘Nitaleta ingine (I will bring another one). Justice Warsame has constantly been taunting me about hiring his people. He kept on telling me that ‘hatujakula matunda ya uhuru yako [we have not yet seen the fruits of your tenure]. Ominde fought me from Day One.
2015: “I am not involved in tenders. If there were irregularities, they should direct them to the tender committee. The law states that the committee should be chaired by a senior judicial officer after the Chief Registrar, in this case my deputy Kakai Kissinger.”