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The magistrate with no law degree

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Published on Saturday, 02 June 2007 07:58

When he retired as a senior resident magistrate this year, Mr Nahason Kerama, 66, had served in the legal profession for 38 years. But he never set foot in law school. "You don't have to have a law degree to determine cases," he says with pride, "What matters is respect for the law," he adds with a slight stammer.

Kerama, who was born to peasant farmers Henry Mogunde and Miriam Nyaboke in 1938, is now enjoying a quiet retirement at his Kabosia home in Nyaribari Chache, some 70 kilometres from Kisii town. "Since I was the youngest, I was very attached to my mother and did not want to go to school. But my father forced me to." After sitting for his Certificate of Primary Education at Itierio Primary School, he joined the prestigious Kisii Boys' School, where he did his "O" levels in 1960. The following year, he joined Siriba Teachers' Training College to train as a P1 and graduated in 1962.

"Upon qualifying as a teacher, I was posted to Ibeno Primary School as the headmaster. But all along, I had wanted to work in the law courts, where individuals had immense powers to determine the fate of criminals." His opportunity to work in court came in 1965, when the Judicial Service Commission announced that it was recruiting court clerks. "I went for an interview at the Kericho law courts. The interview was mainly to test one's mastery of his mother tongue, English and Kiswahili." The aim was to ensure that the applicant was a competent interpreter and translator. "I passed and was immediately given Public Service Commission employment forms to fill. I was hired right away and told to report for duty after three days. I went back to Ibeno and handed over to my deputy."

With his new job as a court clerk, Kerama would, in addition to getting into the profession of his choice, earn Sh550, an increase of Sh100 over what he earned as a teacher. "After a short stay in Kericho, I was transferred to Kisii as a clerk-cum-interpreter. Working at the law courts was enjoyable, since I had a lot less to do compared with my days as a headmaster. While in court, Kerama paid keen attention to proceedings and re-read judgments in order to understand how the different categories of cases were determined. "I was advised by a magistrate to apply for a correspondence course in law, which I did. It took two years, and I sat for a law administration examination in 1967 and passed. The following year, I was selected to go for training as a magistrate.

In September, 1968, Kerama was posted to Maralal town to set up a court there. "As a pioneer magistrate, I faced a lot of challenges, among them advising and guiding clerks on what to do, but I managed." Even though it was a huge task handling cases for the first time, he drew from the experience gained during his days as a court clerk. "I also benefited immensely from copies of High Court rulings, which would be given to junior magistrates like me," he recalls.

Appellate judges were very critical of any dubious rulings and judgments made by lower courts, so I studied past cases to help me avoid making questionable judgements. After a two-year stint in Maralal, Kerama was transferred to Kisii as District Magistrate III. In 1975, he was again transferred to a new station that was being set up at Manga trading centre. "I sympathised with suspects there because they would be detained for long periods before being produced in court, ostensibly for lack of transport from the cells, some 40 kilometres away." Consequently, Kerama recommended that the court be relocated to Nyamira town. "While working at Manga between 1975 and 1985, many law students came to my court for their practicals. Among them was Mr Samuel Bosire, now a judge of the Court of Appeal, and senior state counsel Omari Bwonwong'a. His recommendation to have the court relocated was accepted and he moved to Nyamira, where he remained until 1995, when he was again transferred to Rongo, where he retired after being in-charge for 12 years.

Asked about the cases he found most difficult to decide, Kerama cites the 1992 and 1997 tribal clashes between Kisiis and Luos. "Suspects from both the Migori and Gucha sides of the border were arraigned before me. Since I am a Kisii, many people thought I was would be biased. At public meetings, politicians cast doubts on my competence to handle security cases.

At the height of the tension along the border, the then Rongo officer commanding station, also a Kisii, was transferred for fear that he might collude with Kerama and favour those from the Gucha side. "But I applied the law accordingly," says Kerama. "My rulings somehow restored calm along the volatile border, a truce that has held to date." Kerama says he resisted innumerable attempts to accept bribes.

"I can tell you that it is very tempting," he says. "Your child may have been sent home over a balance of school fees when somebody comes along with more than what you need. But your conscience tells you it is immoral to accept this kind of money at the expense of fair judgments." He invariably turned such people away and advised them to produce adequate evidence to determine their case. "The only favour I can say I may have extended to anybody was handing a less severe sentence, but still within the law. That is why I never received any letter reprimanding me, nor did the High Court reverse any of my judgments.

Despite his modest legal background, lawyers respected his judgments and always consulted him whenever there was a misunderstanding. "Unless somebody told you that he did not have a law degree, you could not tell," says Mr Rodgers Abisai, a Migori-based advocate. "Administering the law is still difficult and even many of us who spent several years in college would still consult him on the interpretation of some clauses," adds Leonard Ombachi, who also worked with Kerama. "When you went to his court, you had to be very clear on what lines to proceed because if you tried to deviate from the procedures, which he had mastered, he would give you a stern warning.

Although he acknowledges that there was corruption in the judiciary, Kerama believes that the manner in which those implicated were bundled out was unjust since they were never told what their crimes were. He points out that court clerks sometimes use their proximity to magistrates to solicit for bribes without the magistrates' knowledge. To stem the practice, he recommends that detectives be stationed at law courts to monitor the conduct of such clerks. The government should also increase the salaries of all judicial staff vis-a-vis that of judges.

"Magistrates do the donkey work. High Court judges, who now earn 10 times more than magistrates, go through a ready judgment verses grounds of appeal to make a decision. "A magistrate has to listen to evidence from several witnesses then go through many similar cases in a day to deliver judgment yet at the end of the day you pay him or her peanuts. You are forcing them to look for other ways of making up for long hours in court in order to be at par with other professional colleagues," he argues. Nevertheless, Kerama cautions young lawyers and magistrates against greed for wealth. "Stick to the legal provisions and you will serve long in the judiciary; rush for riches and you will be sacked, he advises.