Shadrack Wambui, 28, is a young, fast-rising lawyer. He is popularly known as the lawyer who successfully represented the Rastafarian case, where a young student was chased from school for having dreadlocks.
He is also one of the lawyers in several other high-profile cases, including the Cohen murder case and the Kitany-Linturi divorce case. In his other life, he is a boxer.
We sat down with him for an in-depth interview about his life, career and achievements so far.
The Star: What inspired you to pursue law?
Shadrack Wambui: The struggles we faced when we were growing up. My mum used to sell chang’aa, and that’s what paid my school fees. More often than not, we were arrested. The policemen would pour the liquor, which was my school fees.
I was brought up in Mathare Bondeni. Those events angered me while growing up. Honestly speaking, I didn’t know I would be a lawyer but I wanted to be against the police. To correct all the wrongs that the police were doing.
I lost friends through the bullet. The police were doing their job but I was losing loved ones. Growing up, I was frustrated and wanted to become an armed robber because that’s what I knew to be anti-police, but while in class 8, I learnt that there is a profession known as lawyers who would find solutions and find justice for people.
What challenges did you face in getting through law school?
I thank my parents, my mum's chamas, my late grandmother and Mathare CDF for playing a role in my education all the way from primary to campus, and I also used Helb. I also got several scholarships.
After clearing campus, I set out to join Kenya School of Law, but I didn’t have the required Sh190,000 admission fee. So I wrote a letter to them, applying for their scholarship. They called and I was among those who got the highest sponsorship from them that took me to KSL. I am glad there are Helb loans now for KSL students, unlike in our time.
But I understand you have sued LSK in one the cases you are handling?
Yes. Even though they paid for my fees, which I'm grateful for, I have taken them to court, challenging their requirement that every newly admitted advocate should pay Sh21,560.
Where do they expect a newly admitted lawyer to get that kind of money, against the backdrop of many struggles just to go through law school?
How did you feel when you were admitted to the bar by Chief Justice Maraga last year?
Having been brought up in the ghetto, I was the first person in my family from both sides to have stepped into a university. For me, that was a big achievement, so being admitted to the bar was equally a major milestone, and it showed that it must not end at class eight or when you hit puberty. I took the graduation ceremony to my community, to the people, because it was their win not mine. It takes a lot to penetrate in this profession.
What do you look for in a case before you take it up?
I took an oath during my admission to do defend that which is good and right. My work does not require of me to pass judgement to people who come crying to me. If you are guilty, they will find you guilty. Either way, even if you are guilty, you require someone to defend you so you can get justice, the outcome must be just. Our work is not to choose cases, unless we are conflicted.
Most people know you from the Rastafarian case, where you represented the student who was chased away from school for having dreadlocks. What made you take up the case?
The Rastafarian case is not the first case. I have done others, some of which I have also lost. I started advocating for human rights even before I was admitted as an advocate. In campus, I served as a student president in Catholic University. My law firm, Musyoki and Co Advocates, has exposed me to a lot of legal drafting and advocacy in court and understanding things. I filed a number of cases as a student, including for prisoners and law students.
I was passionate because I have grown up being socialised around Rastas. Being brought up in the ghetto, I would listen to reggae music, and when I got a tip-off from a friend that a student was being discriminated because of her religion, I was offended and I got in touch with the father of the minor.
The success of the case cannot be attributed to me alone. My colleagues helped me a lot, even by paying the filing fees. And lawyer Ochiel Dudley also joined me in court. I was so happy when we won the case, and I think we need to respect Rastas and other people in society, too.
Tell us about your first major win in the courtroom and how that made you feel.
I would look at it as the case that inspired me the most. The case involved Nancy Njeri vs the Kenyatta National Hospital, where the hospital had detained the remains of my boxing coach due to unpaid bills of Sh700,000 last year. He was in the mortuary for close to three months. I got the inspiration to file the case from a lawyer friend and got inspiration to approach the court to get orders of the court.
In my research, I found out that the High Court had on several occasions issued orders for the release of bodies. The court issued orders for the unconditional release of the body to us, and it was a great win for the community, and that is when I realised I had solutions. It dawned on me that I can be of value to my community, and I had saved my community from mourning. It was a case that was a highlight from my practice.
What are the challenges you face as a young lawyer?
Challenges are there, especially when you are young and not from a wealthy family. This profession is said to be of the noble class, so we sons and daughters of peasants have infiltrated into the noble class.
Also, when you are young in the midst of your senior colleagues and some think that you do not have the capacity to interpret or interrogate the law. But I thank God I am in the best law firm and it comes back to my mentor lawyer Dastan Omari, who encourages me when discouraged. I think senior lawyers who I respect a lot should give juniors an opportunity to express themselves when we are in court.
Who is your role model?
My late grandmother, who never went to school but was so selfless. My boxing coach, the late Muchoki Mwangi. And in my career, I admire lawyer Danstan Omari, who was my lecturer and is now my boss.
Would you consider going to the bench?
For now, I'm okay with representing my people and fighting for human rights, and I feel that will be achieved best when I'm working from the bar.
What is your motivation in life?
My people and where I come from; Mathare is at the center of my heart. Police brutality, hunger, the deaths involving my friends, if they were taken to prison by now, they would have changed me.
What made you not fall into crime?
My mum was a disciplinarian and that made me not to join those gangs. But above all, I'm just lucky I did not get to crime because it was the easiest thing to do.
How would you like to encourage a teenager aspiring to be a lawyer but giving up because of circumstances?
I will encourage them, even though it’s not simple. I know it’s hard. Apart from the reality of poverty, you also have people with perceptions about the place you call home, but you have keep your head up. If we work hard, refuse to be distracted, to be put down and discouraged by the environment and people who know where you come from. Be the best that you can in your current job, be it a cobbler, tailor or even barber, and be committed and consistent. If you keep knocking, someone will certainly open the door for you.
What’s do you do to unwind when not in court or boxing?
The best way growing up in slums was listening to reggae music. It gave me hope. To date, I listen to songs and I attend reggae joints or shows when I have time. Sometimes, I also love some peace and quiet to meditate, where I just sit and think of God’s blessings in my life.
Boxing cools my demons - lawyer Wambui
When he is not dressed in expensive suits, dashing from one courtroom to another in search of justice for the downtrodden, Shadrack Wambui, 28, is in boxing gloves in the slums, training as an amateur boxer.
The fast-rising young lawyer from Mathare is a member of the Kayole Wings Miller Boxing Club. He has participated in several tournaments and gotten several medals to his name.
He is an amateur boxer and he has no dreams of going pro, but he loves the sport so much that he makes time to go for training, and it has really helped him to stay sane.
“Growing up in the ghetto, I used to be in fistfights, and you have to learn how to defend yourself. That inspired me to get to martial arts skills,” Wambui said.
The lawyer says he progressively admired boxing and became serious with it when he was in campus because he needed something to cool his ‘demons’.
He started in Ongata Rongai boxing club and later joined his current club Kayole Miller Boxing club in 2015. That’s where he met his late Coach Muchoki Mwangi, who mentored him, and sometimes he would even send him money for upkeep when he was in law school.
“People who know me say that I respond quickly to criticism with blows. I just became civilised the other day through schooling, but now due to boxing, you can insult me and I will walk away,” he said.
Wambui, who trains alongside his younger sister, says he needed to tame all that energy because he used to respond to everything using blows.
On Saturday we got a chance to see him training alongside other club members at Kayole Community Centre where youths from the ghetto meet every weekend to train in a bid to curb crime.
The lawyer, who has rubbed shoulders with who is who in the corridors of justice, mingled freely with his friends in Kayole. Dressed in a tracksuit and a T-shirt with the inscriptions, ‘Made in Mathare’ and ‘Boy wa Wambui’, and sneakers, Wambui was not shy to share with us his humble beginnings.
His clubmates, who have been training with him, showered him with praises, telling us he was a source of inspiration to them and they are encouraged by what he has accomplished, having been brought up in the ghetto.
The team train for an average of two hours, after which they share and get to know how each one is doing in life and encourage each other to keep striving for success.
Wambui, who is also pursuing his Masters of law degree, encouraged them to continue working hard and be excellent in whatever profession they are in, telling them that at long last, it would pay off.
As he drove out of the Kayole Community Centre, he stopped for a moment to buy ghetto ice popsicle for everyone, and he also took one for himself.
“Such sweetness can only be found in the ghetto,” he said.
