An elderly man in a worn judicial robe stood outside the gates of Nairobi National Park on Tuesday morning, holding a sign that read 'Justice for the Land.' Within an hour, Willy Mutunga, Kenya’s former chief justice and a revered figure in the legal community, was in police custody. His arrest for leading a protest against a government-backed real estate development on protected wildlife land has raised urgent questions about the UK’s role in supporting the rule of law abroad.
Mutunga, 76, was detained alongside dozens of activists from the ‘Save the Park’ coalition. They argue that the proposed luxury housing project, financed by a consortium including a UK-listed investment firm, will destroy a critical ecosystem and displace local communities. 'This is not about a park. It is about whether our laws mean anything when money talks,' Mutunga shouted before being bundled into a police van.
For Mutunga, the arrest is a bitter irony. As chief justice from 2011 to 2016, he led a judicial reform drive hailed by the UK’s Department for International Development, which funded training and infrastructure. Now, he sees that same investment being undermined. 'We sent millions to strengthen Kenyan courts, and now they arrest a reformer for defending them,' said a former British diplomat familiar with the programme.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office declined to comment on the arrest, but sources confirm that the development in question received due diligence from UK Export Finance, which supports British companies overseas. The project’s lead investor, London-based Blue Horizon Developments, has defended the plan as a 'much-needed modernisation' that will create jobs.
But on the ground, the reality is more complex. Martha Wanjiku, a market vendor whose family has lived adjacent to the park for three generations, spoke of a quiet desperation. 'They say jobs, but we have seen what development means before. Our water sources are diverted, our children breathe dust from construction, and now our elders are arrested,' she said. Her sentiment echoes across a nation where the gap between the elite and the rest grows ever wider.
The protest comes as Kenya’s President William Ruto faces mounting criticism for pushing through infrastructure projects without proper consultation. Analysts warn that the crackdown on dissent risks derailing a fragile democratic progress that the UK has long championed. 'The rule of law is not just about courthouses. It is about whether a former chief justice can protest without being arrested,' said Fatima Ahmed, a legal scholar at the University of Nairobi.
Mutunga’s detention has prompted condemnation from international human rights groups. Amnesty International called for his immediate release, noting that Kenya’s constitution guarantees the right to peaceful assembly. His supporters have vowed to continue the protests, even as police maintain a heavy presence.
Back in London, the government is walking a tightrope. It cannot be seen to condone repression, but it also has commercial interests to protect. 'The UK must choose between its values and its profits,' wrote the Guardian’s Africa correspondent in a sharp editorial. For Mutunga, sitting in a cell, the choice is stark. The former judge, who once handed down rulings that held the powerful to account, now awaits a verdict on his own fate. And the question that haunts him is the same one that haunts every Kenyan watching from their kitchen tables: whose law will prevail?
