Mount Kenya University School of Law on Saturday held the first alumni luncheon even as it launched an online Masters of Law (LLM) programme.
The luncheon themed ‘Journey Beyond Alma Mater’ was attended by many practising lawyers including former MKU students as well as dignitaries drawn from government and private sector.
Former Meru governor Kiraitu Murungi gave a public lecture titled ‘Happiness and the Law: the Nexus’ in which he encouraged lawyers to seek happiness even as they par Excellence while practising the law.
“The legal profession is a noble profession,” he said.
“Lawyers play a role in solving problems, protecting individual rights, promoting social justice and ensuring smooth functioning of institutions of state. Lawyers use law as an instrument of transformation of society and they make a positive difference in the lives of many people.”
He said while the legal profession is critical for the advancement of any country, the men and women who advance these courses should not be drowned in work to the point of becoming case studies of how not to pursue a career.
“I want to remind you, despite the many titles that you may get, you as lawyers are still men and women. You are human beings and whatever happens to other humans beings also happens to you,” he said.
“Many lawyers may be wearing nice suits but inside they are just trying to survive. Things are difficult. Many want to move forward but for every step they make forward, they find themselves two steps back. Life has become frustrating.”
Kiraitu gave a personal experience on how he came to the realisation that in much of his life, he had pursued things that may have brought him fortunes but did not augur well for his personal life, and had left him with the feeling of a vacuum.
He narrated how after being diagnosed with Covid-19 in 2020, while still recovering in hospital, he reflected on his past life and noted that many things appeared meaningless including the achievements such as rising to become a Cabinet Minister.
“We are obsessed with insatiable greed for money, power and prestige. We usually dedicate ourselves to useless and irrelevant pursuits and allow our lives to be stolen by others,” he said.
“During that time I discovered you can never get enough however much you try. You will never get enough money, power and prestige.”
“When I was sick, I reflected on my life and discovered that politics had stolen my life. I had been running around to please other people but not myself. I decided that if I recovered, I would reclaim my life and would live a happier, more enjoyable and meaningful life.
But as fate would have it I would not. When I recovered, I found myself in politics again.”
In last year’s general election, Kiraitu who served as a minister in President Mwai Kibaki’s administration, sought re-election as governor of Meru but lost to Kawira Mwangaza.
He has since bounced back as a commissioner at the Kenya Law Review Commission and the chairman of National Oil Corporation.
He told the lawyers during the MKU luncheon that he has also been trying to do other things that make him happy, including enrolling for a course on psychology as well as practising law.
“Happiness is within you. The idea is to discover and cultivate happiness in your life,” he said.
“Do something that you are passionate about. If you do not find excitement in law, it does not matter, go do something that you are passionate about and it makes you happy. The four years that you have spent should not tie your life to one of misery. Or in addition to law, do something else that you are passionate about.”
“A lawyer’s life does not need to be unhappy. We do not have to be stressed and hopeless. We do not have to live our life without fun, joy, laughter, love and romance.”
At the luncheon, former students of the MKU School of Law—many of them practising lawyers—formed an Alumni Association.
MKU Pro Chancellor Vincent Gaitho urged the former MKU students to hold the hands of the the young students both by acting as an example as well as offering other forms of help.
“You will only be at peace as a lawyer or any other professional if you are a person of goodwill. In life, if we become curious, we seek to provide solutions. If you do not wonder, you will not be creative. It is only by being curious that you seek solutions,” he said.
“The alumni association that you have formed shall become a true communion beyond the lecture halls… that it will become an assembly where you are going to share and influence the space that you occupy and that your alma mater will benefit when you come back and support the young students that you have left.”
MKU Vice Chancellor Prof Deogratius Jaganyi noted that the luncheon had given the university and its former students a platform to engage as they both sought to enhance legal training in the country.
He added that the university had invested heavily in distance learning, which would make it easier for law students to access such programmes as the online Masters of Law programme.
“The university has invested significantly on distance and electronic learning and we have quite a number of our programmes being offered and examined online,” he said.
“I am happy that today we are launching distance and electronic learning for Master of Laws and indeed this will be very convenient to many postgraduate students in the legal profession.”
Silvanus Osoro MP South Mugirango and an alumni of MKU School of Law, encouraged young lawyers to create networks among themselves as well as the senior lawyers to be able to succeed in law, which he said is fast changing.
“Beyond our schooling, there are phases in life where you cannot move alone. You have to network. Your strength as a lawyer is in networking. The practice of law is changing,” he said.