https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2019-12-20-tribute-to-justice-james-otieno-odek/
The demise of a colleague is always a shocking experience, but sometimes it hits you with an intensity that is beyond comprehension.

And so it has been with the death of Justice (Prof) Otieno-Odek. My friend and colleague at the Court of Appeal who was found dead in his house in Kisumu on the morning of Monday, December 16.

Ever since I encountered him at the University of Nairobi in the 1980s, it was quite clear that in him was a promise of momentous achievement.

He was two classes behind me in the Faculty of Law, but everyone in the faculty knew of his hard work; that he was a highly intelligent young man with an affable personality and a commanding presence.

This was the reputation he carried with him wherever he went: From Nairobi to the United States and Canada in search of higher education, and back to Kenya where his academic mettle saw him quickly rise to become dean of the law school at the University of Nairobi as a relatively young man just getting into his 40s.

Our paths were to later cross in happy circumstances as we both made it in the interviews for the recruitment by the Judicial Service Commission to the Court of Appeal in 2012 and were sworn in by President Mwai Kibaki in December of that year. Both of us were inducted before getting down to work in our new environment.

There is a lot one can say about Justice Odek as a professional colleague, but to me what stood out most was his diligence and fastidious commitment to his work.

On many occasions we worked on the same bench, and that’s when I truly appreciated how industrious he was in terms of his meticulous research and delivery.

Despite being very thorough, he delivered his work at speeds that always left us bewildered.

Since his passing on we have, as judges,come to the conclusion that no one in our time has had the kind of output we got from Judge Odek. He would sometimes draft a 150-page judgement in a day while everyone else needed as much as three weeks for similar output. He was totally in a different league.

Justice Odek was one of those people who perfectly fitted in Rudyard Kipling’s prescription in the famous poem If: Able to walk with the crowd while keeping his virtue; and walking with kings without losing the common touch.

While he served as the Justice Training Institute director, his relationship with donors ensured an incessant flow of funding for all training programmes.

On the other hand, he was the perpetual guide to all of us – judges and Judiciary staff including drivers - about where to find a special meal or fitting accommodation while on visits to stations out of Nairobi.

We in the Judiciary will miss Justice Odek a great deal. Of course his family and the people of Asembo will miss him more. He was devoted to his family with immeasurable zeal. Many were the times he took my colleagues and I on missions to equip computer labs in local schools or to build churches, always the indefatigable giver to the place he called home.

Fare thee well my brother.  Till we meet again.

Justice William Ouko is president of the Court of Appeal