Gitobu Imanyara
Lawyer, editor and democracy campaigner
He made space for arguments the authorities wanted silenced.
- Theme
- Conscience
Gitobu Imanyara founded and edited the Nairobi Law Monthly, which became an important forum for legal criticism and political debate during the campaign against one-party rule.
His journalism and advocacy exposed him to harassment and detention. His contribution lies in defending the circulation of ideas, providing a platform where constitutional reform and the abuse of power could be discussed publicly.
Life and work
After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987. It was not supportive of Daniel Arap Moi's one party policy and Imanyara was arrested for not registering the magazine. He was again arrested in 1990 after writing a special issue entitled "The Historic Debate: Law, Democracy, and Multi-Party Politics in Kenya." At one point he was held in a prison psychiatric ward, though he re-released the issue following his own release.
Imanyara was arrested for a third time in April 1991 after police confiscated the current issue of his journal. The offending information was about the formation of an opposition political party, and Imanyara was unable to notify his family or lawyer. His papers were ransacked without a warrant.
While in custody, Imanyara developed a brain tumor which was treated. Kenyan aid money went down significantly after the arrest, and the U.S. State Department called it "another denial of freedom of expression in Kenya." He was awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award later that year, but due to authorities not allowing him to leave the country for it, Liberal International President Otto Lambsdorff brought it personally to Nairobi in early 1992.
At the Kenyan general elections in December 1997, he won a regional landslide victory and was elected MP for Central Imenti Constituency. He continued to publish his newspaper, which was renamed the Africa Law Review. Imanyara is a member of the International Board of Article XIX, a member of the Advisory Board of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, and also a member of the Media Institute for the advancement of the freedom of expression.
In January 2008, Imanyara accused the Kenyan first lady Lucy Kibaki of assault and threatened to sue Kibaki over the alleged incident. The first lady was swift to deny the allegations, accusing Imanyara of blackmail after failing to secure the deputy Speaker's seat during the elections in Parliament.
The Nairobi Law Monthly mattered because it connected legal argument with a public audience. A debate about constitutional rules could otherwise remain confined to lawyers' offices, courtrooms or university seminars. Publishing it gave readers a way to assess the state's claims against the principles that were supposed to govern it. Imanyara's work therefore joined two forms of accountability: the advocate asking a court to protect a right, and the editor making that right a matter of public discussion. His later parliamentary career carried those concerns into an institution whose own freedom to debate was part of the democratic struggle.
This section adapts selected passages from Gitobu Imanyara by Wikipedia contributors. It is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected and edited passages, with additional editorial context; lists and reference markers omitted; punctuation and paragraph breaks adjusted. Photographs have separate licences.
