Rugby ‘judge’ spills the beans

The guest speaker at British council’s Leadership forum on Wednesday night hosted at The Stanley was the gently amusing Richard Omwela, the Managing Partner, Hamilton, Harrison & Matthews and long serving Kenya Rugby Football Union (KRFU) chairman.
He gave a talk about leadership, and of course during the talk, Omwela who is known as ‘Judge’ in the rugby circles spilt the beans on why he publicly turned down government appointment to be one, back in 2001. The audience was left in laughter as he described the whole incident in a comical manner and later termed the appointment as a chance to “balance the tribal equation.”
“I got a call. I rushed to the high court and I found them waiting for me. They pointed at a corner and said, ‘There is a gown there for you, you are going to be sworn in tomorrow at the high court.’ And I asked them ‘Who said?’ and they said ‘We the government have decided that you are becoming a judge,’ so I asked how much do judges earn? And they said, ‘Come in tomorrow you will find out after the swearing in.’ The more questions I asked, the more irritated and unobtrusive they became. I was given an hour to decide, after which they would send the names for the Gazette notice.”
Omwela turned down the offer citing an extremely short notice, lack of prior consultation, and lack of information or even a sense of clarity as to the terms and conditions of work.