Udoto Kongani Udoto is not a new name to Kenyans especially after 2016 where joined the race to succeed former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, well aware that he was not a qualified lawyer.
And now the man, a carpenter, has since graduated as an advocate and is set to be admitted into the bar by Chief Justice David Maraga, the man who beat him, on Tuesday.
Consequently, he will now be free to represent litigants in court, a dream he says it has taken him 20 years to achieve, owing to poverty, hence the inability to fund his education costs.
“I have been in and out of school for 20 years since I joined law school. I joined Moi University in September 1999. I thought after 10 years, I would at least have a doctorate or something close to that. However, things changed along the way,” says the father of three.
He says that after some time as a carpenter and with some money from his mother and well-wishers, he managed to graduate from Moi University in 2011, but was still blocked from entering the bar.
Upon going to Nairobi to join the Kenya School of Law, he says, he was told that some of the units he had done had changed, and was forced to retake them at Riara University, before graduating in 2017.
And though he is now set to officially become a lawyer, he says that he remains a carpenter as well, and is also planning to take a shot at the Chief Justice seat once again.
He also wants to publish books and has also applied for a masters in the United States.
I am still a carpenter, but only occasionally. My workshop is still running, but right now I am researching because I want to publish books. Very few lawyers have published in Kenya. I have also applied for a master’s degree in the US,” he added.