His leafy Nairobi address is denoted by a seven. And, like a wearer of the number 7 shirt in any football team, lawyer Sharad Rao is a prized player in Kenya’s legal circles.
Starting his law practice in 1960, where he remembers defending some of the people who were agitating for Kenya’s independence, and engaging in private practice for nearly two decades before he joined the government, where he peaked as the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rao has been on the attacking and defending side of things in various courtrooms. A Cristiano Ronaldo-esque number 7, if you may.
He was away in the Netherlands between 1984 and 1996, returning to represent Kamlesh Pattni and reclaiming his position as one of the country’s most sought-after criminal lawyers.
Lawyers can appear in court for as long as their mental faculties allow them, and so Rao, at 88, could still be appearing before judges, calling people plaintiffs or respondents or ex-parte applicants or petitioners or whatever else the moment dictates. But he left that space as a matter of principle. This was in 2016 when the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board, which he was chairing, folded up.
“I thought it would be unethical for me now to appear before a judge that I had vetted,” he says, his words cutting through the still and cold morning air that is making monkeys at a tree next to his compound move on branches rather lackadaisically.
“It is not that I was prevented or suspended from appearing before courts, but I decided that it would not be ethical for me to appear in court after I had vetted the judges and magistrates. By and large, I don’t practise now,” he adds.
In June, he released a book titled From Jomo to Uhuru: Rao’s Nine Lives. We discussed the book, what he is up to, and the legal profession in general.
How does it feel to be 88?
I’m happy that, at the age of 88, I’m still not suffering from any kind of illness. I had a back problem for quite some time, and somehow, in the last five or six months, I stopped going to doctors, stopped taking any drugs, and that back pain has largely disappeared.
Did it heal on its own?
I think maybe it’s the kind of thing I do (a therapy procedure that involves pressing muscles). I ascribe it, maybe it’s because of that. I used to be very active in sports, and then in my latter years, I played golf as a reasonable golfer, but because of my back pain, I couldn’t continue.
But now that my back has improved, I want to go back to this game because the course (Muthaiga Golf Club) is just five minutes away from me. It’s one of the best in Nairobi.
You retained your membership without playing?
I am an honorary life member of Muthaiga Golf Club. Even if I don’t play, we occasionally go there, have a cup of coffee, or a meal. In an era where social media connects people around the globe, many older adults remain shut out of the digital community.
I look at WhatsApp quite often for newspapers, although I have an app for local and, overseas newspapers, and even magazines. So WhatsApp is one of my favourites. Twitter (now X); not so much, but I look at Facebook.
Has your diet changed over the years?
No. I’m a non-vegetarian, but our food is mostly vegetarian. For almost a whole week, I eat purely vegetarian diet. Once a week or so, we have chicken meat or something.
Former chairman of the Kenya Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board Sharad Rao posing at his Muthaiga home on August 1, 2024.
Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group
You know that Hindus do not eat beef—the religion forbids them from eating beef—but I have no religious constraints. I eat beef if I want to. I don’t eat pork because I don’t like it.
Also, I am not a heavy eater. I’m restrained in eating anything that contains sugar. Even in my tea or coffee, I don’t have sugar. It is more out of taste than anything else.
The story behind it is that when I went to China in 1974 and was there for three weeks, they kept on serving me tea mugs, covered with a top. The moment I drank some, they would refill it. And it was all without sugar. So I was there for three weeks, drinking this tea, forcibly, without sugar.
I went to Hong Kong and I said, ‘For three weeks now, I’ve been having this tea without sugar. It’s a good habit: Why not continue?’ And I haven’t had sugar in my beverages since then.
That’s 50 years of no sugar.
It’s something for which I developed a taste. You put sugar in my tea or coffee, I don’t like it. And also, I refrain from taking too many sweet things: desserts, pastries, and all that.
Is there a daily routine you have not broken since 1960, when you started practising as a lawyer, something like reading a book?
I don’t read much because I have a problem with my eye. Something went into my left eye, and I almost lost it. I went to India, and after about five or six operations, they were able to restore it, just not 100 percent of the sight, but I have good vision. For instance, I can look at both sides. I’m not constrained from driving. Reading is a bit difficult. Of course, I use glasses but even then, it’s a bit of a strain.
What is your advice to a young lawyer getting started in their career?
The most important thing is hard work. You can’t get anywhere in law without hard work. The legal profession is really where you need to put in a lot of work. You need proper research. If you’re not prepared to work, you can’t be a good lawyer. You can’t walk into court without being prepared. You’ve got to be very well prepared.
Tell us about the book you released in June.
For this book, the first problem I had was that when we went to Holland, all my documents were either left behind or destroyed. So, I have no documents to refer to, and therefore whatever is written in the book comes from memory. I would have done much better if I had those records.
The second problem, of course, is the Official Secrets Act, which makes it impossible for me to reveal whatever is guarded by the Act. So, within those handicaps, I produced this book, which apparently has been very well received. But if not for the Act, I would have had much more to reveal.
Yeah, the Official Secrets Act takes you right through. So, during my lifetime, I would be constrained from saying anything.
So, what are you currently up to?
I devote a lot of time to welfare projects. I have two; in one we are training women and the youth to be machine operators—sewing. Not for domestic sewing; we’re training them to work in factories, and we have an arrangement with the EPZ that whoever we train after six weeks or so (in Kitengela), and if we are satisfied that they are properly trained and are capable, they will offer them jobs. Already, we have about 1,700 employed in the EPZ, and this year’s target is between 9,000 and 10,000.
In the other project, our idea is to set up a handloom in Voi that is based on Gandhi’s concept. If you see pictures of Gandhi, he is sitting on a spinning wheel. He used to make his fabric because he was trying to get the Indian people to make their own fabric to boycott anything that was imported from Britain. So, we are working trying to introduce that sort of idea that Gandhi had.
What is your opinion on the nomination of Dorcas Oduor as Kenya’s first Attorney-General?
I welcome very much the recent appointment of Dorcas as AG. I know her well. I think, if I’m not wrong, that she worked for us in the State Law Office. I always regarded her as one of the more competent prosecutors in that office.
It’s nice to see women in those positions, and one of the things that I admire about Kenya is, in fact, the transformation of women from 1963 to now. If you look back to 1963, you could handpick the number of African women (in leadership positions).
Having been in the Olympics and other sports committees, do you think Kenyan youths were justified in asking for publication of the list of all people travelling to Rio?
Well, the Olympics, as you know, are always very popular internationally, and everyone who has the chance wants to go there. And if you look at the past Olympic Games where Kenya participated, there were quite a few hangers-on, and I think Rio was a good example of it.
So, this is why this time around they asked for a list to be published as to who is going, so that you don’t take people who are not really connected or do not have any kind of a job to carry out. And that’s a good thing, because, you know, a place being given to someone who is not an athlete deprives an athlete of that place, right?
Do you feel you have been successful as a father?
Yes. There was a time I stayed in Holland without any particular income as such; simply on my savings. However, I still supported my two daughters in their schooling.
Holland was not suitable for them because the education there is very different from the English one. So, we put them up in boarding schools in London and it wasn’t easy for me to maintain that. But I did. So, from that point of view, I regard that I fulfilled my responsibility as a father despite financial constraints.
How would you describe your grandchildren?
My two daughters live abroad. One is in Hong Kong; another is in Singapore. The grandchildren are very fond of Kenya, but I don’t see them coming to Kenya to settle. They love Kenya, but I think that wherever they are, that’s where they will continue to live.
