Nairobi, April 23 -- By the time I started practising law in Nyeri, Kenya had begun to take shape as a land where the law felt like a tool in the hands of the ruling elite, used solely to keep the masses in check.

I recall a notorious case I took about a year into my legal practice. It was in the Wajir area. The then District Commissioner was a brutal man, who had incessantly sought ways to end the sale of miraa or khat in the area and was going to do whatever it took to end the trade.

To his credit, he looked in the statute books to see if there was any legal provision he could rely on to issue a sweeping ban on miraa, but couldn't find any.

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