• He has suffered painful bereavements over the years, but lawyer John Khaminwa finds legal practice therapeutic
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Veteran lawyer Dr John Khaminwa cuts an image of a determined human rights crusader with tough rhetoric against the establishment. He is also known to be a phone call away from representing those believing their rights have been violated.
But he has also suffered major tragedies in life that weigh him down when he spares a thought or two about them, however tough a case or discussion he is in.
“I miss my wife a lot. She was a brilliant judge,” he told the Star with a suddenly forlorn face during an interview on Monday. Joyce Khaminwa, his wife of 48 years, died in 2014 at Nairobi Hospital. She was a judge at the High Court.
“Yes, we had a wonderful marriage for over 48 years. What a partner she was,” he said, with a somber mood setting into the room. Death must have robbed him of a marriage so hard cultivated and richly interwoven.
And as the conversation snailed on, Dr Khaminwa would again wear the forlorn face when talking about his firstborn son Albert Khaminwa, who died in 2017, describing him as the one who walked in his steps, becoming a lawyer. At the time of his dying, Albert had become a senior partner at Khaminwa & Khaminwa Advocates, the law firm the veteran lawyer runs.
“He was a brilliant son,” he said, followed by silence. From his demeanour, the two deaths clearly drilled a deep hole in his heart.
Soon turning 84, Dr Khaminwa has had enough of life, seeing so many things that work for him and those that don’t. The one that clearly continues to fascinate and relieve him of stress for over 50 years is practising law. This is what relieves his stress and keeps his hope alive after waking up from his bed.
“Being an advocate is really fascinating. I like listening to people’s problems. It relieves my stress,” he said.
“You go and find this chap telling you he is suspected to have killed someone. Another is a woman crying to you that her husband has beaten her and kicked her out of their home with children in the streets.
“Listening and thinking about other people’s problems rather than your own is emotionally therapeutic.”
He is so much in love with the law that he won’t retire from it. It is only death that will make him stop lawyering, he said.
Dr Khaminwa has represented the high and mighty in his over half-a-century career, with some of the cases making him cross paths with former President Daniel arap Moi, landing him in detention.
“I have represented Raila, Matiba, George Anyona among others during the struggle against dictatorship,” he said. His representation of Stephen Mureithi, who had been moved as deputy chief of intelligence but declined, particularly earned the wrath of President Moi.
Another case that pushed him to national limelight was the cultural conflict that pit Umira Kager clan of Alego against Wambui Otieno, who wanted the body of her late husband SM Otieno buried in their Ngong Matasia home in 1986. SM Otieno was a leading criminal lawyer. Dr Khaminwa represented his widow.
Though Khaminwa won the first round of the protracted battle when the High Court ordered the body given to the widow for burial in Matasia, the clan later won in an appeal and had the body for burial in Alego, Siaya county.
It was one of the longest heard cases that lasted over a year, with the body of the late top lawyer lying at the City Mortuary, awaiting the court’s ruling.
Edited by T Jalio