Pheroze Nowrojee: Brilliant legal mind and defender of the silenced

**Senior counsel Pheroze Nowrojee.** [David Gichuru, Standard]

It is with a heart weighed down by grief and profound sorrow that I mourn the passing of my dear friend, comrade and brother in struggle, Senior Counsel Pheroze Nowrojee. His departure from this world is not only a personal loss but also a monumental one for Kenya and all who believe in justice, human dignity, and the enduring worth of principle over power.

Pheroze was not just a brilliant legal mind; he was the conscience of our country. In the darkest hours of our nation — when repression reigned and the machinery of the State turned against its people — he stood unflinchingly beside those who had been silenced, detained, or exiled. His courage was not rhetorical. It was a lived reality, sustained by deep conviction, quiet humility, and a burning fidelity to the rule of law.

Over the decades, we shared not only courtrooms and causes, but a vision of a more just and democratic Kenya. In those harrowing days of the struggle for multiparty democracy, Pheroze was a constant presence, not in the spotlight, but in the trenches-defending political prisoners, drafting petitions, offering solace to the persecuted. His voice in court was calm and deliberate, yet it struck with the moral force of thunder. For many of us, he was more than a legal ally; he was a spiritual pillar in the long journey toward liberation.

It is deeply moving that in his most recent and final book, Practising an Honourable Profession, Pheroze chose to dedicate his reflections and writings to myself, my wife Florence and our two sons Marangu and Mutuma, alongside his family. We received this gesture with quiet gratitude and deep emotion. It was a dedication not merely of ink and page, but of shared sacrifice, memory and love. Pheroze reminded us, through that simple act, that history is not made by solitary individuals, but by communities of conscience that dare to care, to resist, and to hope together.

Florence and I will treasure this final gift of remembrance. In it, we hear his voice once more-measured, principled, tender and we are reminded of the strength he lent us through the years. Our children, and theirs to come, will find in his writing not just knowledge, but a legacy of honour, decency,and unwavering faith in justice.

To his family, I extend my deepest sympathies. Your grief is immense, but so too is the pride with which you can remember a man whose life touched so many, and whose quiet heroism reshaped the moral arc of our nation. Know that as you mourn, you do not mourn alone. Kenya mourns with you. The legal fraternity mourns with you. And all whose lives were made freer by his work bow their heads in gratitude and sorrow.

May Senior Counsel Pheroze Nowrojee rest in eternal peace, reunited with the ancestors he so revered,and the freedom fighters whose cause he so nobly carried forward. His footprints on the corridors of justice will not fade. His name will remain etched in the memory of our republic as a man who practised not just law, but justice. And who, above all, practised an honourable profession with the highest honour of all —a good and generous heart.

Farewell, my friend. You have run your race with quiet dignity and unswerving grace.