City lawyer Donald Kipkorir has turned a courtroom win into a personal act of remembrance, announcing he will donate his entire Sh1 million award from his case against Muthaiga Country Club to a cancer charity in honour of his late mother.
Kipkorir said the gesture is driven by the painful memory of losing his mother to stomach cancer on May 27, 2023. She died in Qatar as the family was returning from India, where she had been undergoing treatment.
“My mama suffered and died from stomach cancer two years ago. I took her to the local hospitals and India. She passed away in Qatar on our way back,” he said on Tuesday.
He added that the donation will come directly from the damages awarded to him, saying, “In honour of her memory, I will give to a Cancer Charity all the money Muthaiga Country Club was ordered to pay me.”
The lawyer opened up about the heavy financial toll of his mother's illness, saying he handled the expenses alone without any external support.
The Sh1 million award was granted last Friday after the High Court found that Muthaiga Country Club violated his constitutional rights by denying him entry despite being invited by a member.
Justice Chacha Mwita ruled that the club acted unlawfully and discriminatorily by blocking Kipkorir without providing a valid reason or prior notice, making the exclusion arbitrary.
“The petitioner was not given the reason for being denied entry to the club prior to the incident of August 9, 2024, making it unclear when the decision to exclude him was made,” the judge stated.
Although the court dismissed claims of racial discrimination, it held that the club failed to justify its actions.
Kipkorir told the court he had frequented the club for more than two decades as a guest of members and clients, and had never been barred before.
He said the incident not only embarrassed him but also disrupted his professional engagements, likening the club’s behaviour to “colonial-era discrimination” and describing it as operating like a relic of the past.
Muthaiga Country Club defended its decision, arguing that Kipkorir had been blocked after making a negative social media comment about one of its chefs. The club said the information had been relayed to the member who invited him.
After the ruling, Kipkorir praised the judge, saying: “Justice Chacha Mwita, who is one of our finest judges in mind and character, held that MCC violated my constitutional rights and that they can’t refuse me entry if I am invited by a member! The judge awarded me damages of Sh1 million plus legal costs.”
Kipkorir said the entire amount will now be channelled to support cancer care, turning what he described as a moment of humiliation into a tribute to his mother’s memory.
