Daily Nation (Kenya) BY KITAVI MUTUA AND PIUS MAUNDU
Mr John Tuta’s name may not ring a bell in the minds of most Kenyans but his proficiency in legal matters and the fight against corruption is celebrated across Africa.
Mr Tuta, the Director of Legal Affairs in the AG’S office who died last week, was hardly known in Kenya despite his significant contribution to lawmaking across the continent.
He was a member of the Africa Union’s Advisory Board on Corruption, and only the second Kenyan to serve in that capacity after former Permanent Secretary Dorothy Angote who served between 2009 and 2012.
He died while undergoing treatment for a rare medical condition at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi and was buried on Saturday at his rural home in Kiliku, Makueni County.
The legal fraternity, including his colleagues at the State Law Office, described him as a committed and brilliant lawyer who as a career civil servant distinguished himself for his competencies in fighting corruption through drafting of tough laws and policies.
AG Githu Muigai mourned Mr Tuta, during the funeral service at St Paul’s University Chapel in Nairobi, as a disciplined and exceptional learner during his teaching days at the University of Nairobi where he was his student, before later working under him as Director of Legal affairs.
The AG credited him as having drafted several laws to operationalise the 2010 Constitution, including the Bribery Act of 2016 and the Peace and Lower Protection Bill still before parliament.
“He single-handedly drafted the bills, which goes to show his level of competence and commitment to ensuring that the law-making process was satisfactorily accomplished,” said Prof Muigai, adding his office would miss his contribution to the legal profession.
Prior to his stint at the AG’S office, Mr Tuta worked at the Joint Secretary on the Taskforce on the Review of Legal, Policy and Institutional Framework for Fighting Corruption in Kenya in 2015.
Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, former CJ Willy Mutunga and Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo lauded Mr Tuta as a humble anti-corruption champion. Governor Kibwana, a law professor, said Mr Tuta’s life and death should create a chance for the country to reflect on the state of runaway corruption.
He said Mr Tuta became a wanted man in the 1990s while working on a book against corruption and was occasionally harassed by police for exposing corruption.
