NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 28 – The longest serving Attorney General in the Commonwealth and Africa, Amos Wako took the final bow early Sunday morning with the affirmation that he was always a “reformist”.
The “most jovial AG in the world” as described by the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende said at a farewell party on Saturday night that the kept smiling on the job knowing that he was always reforming the country from within the system.
“Some people took the road of fighting for reforms by demonstrating and agitating for rights, but when I was appointed I chose to embark on reforms from within; and that’s why I smile all the time, because people know about the role of the outsiders. When they learn of the role of the insiders they will be surprised,” he said.
Speaker after speaker took to the podium to praise the outgoing AG for his service of 20 years, two months and 17 days.
“Even those who called you names, cartooned you daily and said all sort of things against you will remember that you were a great man,” said the reinstated Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula.
National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende said that he will miss a man who had volunteered opinions in many of the ruling he had made in Parliament.
Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga said that the despite the successes of the AG, his tenure will forever be controversial because critics cannot agree on just what his contributions were but brought out a side of the former AG many people never knew of.
“When I went law school in 1969 Wako was a third year student and he was one of the brightest students. I was keen to know what made him bright? I discovered that he was always smart and one of the students who always had a woman to dance with whenever there was a dance in Dar,” he said.
The farewell party organised by the State Law Office was attended by friends of the now former AG’s , schoolmates, Permanent secretaries, Ministers, judges and lawyers from Kenya and Africa.
“The recipe for a good life is to eat with good friends, laugh with them drink with good friends and thereafter to sleep with a contended heart,” said Mr Wako.
Though there are indications that he could vie for a seat in the senate, Wako said that he will make his position known after a two moth break.
He said: “For now I will take rest and meditate, go into the mountains communicating with my maker that they may give me directions because what the people want is what my maker may want so I also have to listen to the people.”
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