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#TheScoop: Politicians should have the vision of business leaders – Mutunga

WILLY-MUTUNGA

Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya Dr. Willy Mutunga believes that political leaders in Africa need to have the vision of business leaders. In an exclusive interview on The Scoop with Salim Amin, Mutunga says Africa lacks issue-oriented politics.

“If we take Kenya, for example, our politics should be about domination of the region. That’s a vision we find with business leaders not politicians. If we have more Uhurus for example … he has a corporatist vision in terms of market and expansion and so forth, and I think corporations like Kenya Commercial Bank, Equity and people in business people like Manu Chandaria who have a different vision,” says Mutunga.

But the Chief Justice gives exceptions of countries like Botswana who have managed their resources prudently while eliminating corruption at the same time.

Mutunga narrates his career journey, that started in the 70’s, as the first Kenyan to teach constitutional law at the University of Nairobi. In 1982, at 35 years, he was detained by the KANU Government for 16 months. Though political detainees were treated a bit better than criminals (with showers and decent toilets), the effect was the same for Mutunga.

“Prison dehumanizes you. If you are detained, you have no access to books and that to a professor can be depressing,” explains the CJ.

Mutunga later practiced criminal lawyer, more out of interest and the ease at each he won the cases rather than for the passion.

“I defended many bank robbers in the 80’s, but they ended up being killed because I often got them off. But it was interesting. I couldn’t choose between two robbers: the bank or the accused,” jokes Mutunga.

Often considered as the most liberal CJ the country has had, Mutunga talks about his controversial earing and how he handles insults on social media.

He also gives us THE SCOOP – the one thing people don’t know about him. Check out the interview below for more.

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