How Scholarship Opportunities Helped Realise Young Lawyer’s Dreams

When he’s not in court sessions, Mr. Ivia Kitonga is either attending to his football team at the Impala Sports Grounds on Ngong Road or reading. He’s just from a court case at the Kibera Law Courts. The 30-year-old is a regular coach in sportswear and a serious attorney in dark suits when it’s time for legal business. He retraces the footsteps of his career and his passion as a sports administrator.

“I wasn’t inclined to sciences so from the start I knew I would end up in the arts,” says Mr. Kitonga. After schooling in Mombasa and at Kilimani Primary in Nairobi, his points were good enough to take him to Njiris School. By then he had already made up his mind in following the path of law as a career.

“My parents knowing the challenges of the legal profession tried to dissuade me but then left me to make my own decision and I appreciate the way they brought us up—they advised us but let us make our own decisions.” Of a burly physique, he played both rugby and football at Njiris, but the latter stuck to date.

He was fortunate enough to be admitted to the University of Nairobi to study Law, just as he had wanted.  About this career choice he says: “A course you decide to study in school is not just about the four years,” he says, “this is something you are bound to do for the rest of your life so give it the careful thought it deserves.”

However, spending close to 18 months before he joined university was not easy for him, it also served as an eye opener for other scholarly avenues.

Spotting Scholarship Opportunities
“I attended short computer courses and studied French at Alliances Francaise in Nairobi and got some exposure on the British Council which I also discovered was offering scholarships,” he says.

“First I asked my parents if they would be kind enough to find me some other course to bridge the gap of the enormous time I was spending before joining campus but was told they also had my sibling’s fees to take care of.”

Left to his own devices, he set out applying for scholarships almost constantly for close to six months. “It was a daunting task, back then around 2001 emails had not become very accessible and I had to look for postal addresses of the many universities and write letters and post them one after the other,” he remembers.

At the end of six months, one application went through and the University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa offered him a chance but there came a challenge: it was a partial scholarship meaning he had to fund the remainder of the required fees.

“I once again turned to my parents and convinced them it was the best place for me to head to. However, even with the partial scholarship, the remaining sum was equivalent to what I would have paid for a parallel degree programme in Kenya,” he observes.

They reached an arrangement where he would work for his upkeep while his parents and the part scholarship took care of the remaining expenses. “I began working in the university library as I studied and to date I appreciate it. Apart from keeping me out of distractions of the new environment, I was able to raise an equivalent of Ksh 40,000 monthly from which 25,000 went to rent and the rest for my upkeep which kept me afloat. I also learnt that every country had its own set of circumstances and everyone struggled to make ends meet.”

Still Mr. Kitonga was heavily involved in football and rugby but soon realized South Africa’s rugby was way too advanced. He set up a diaspora inter-university football team in which he both played and took on administrative roles.

Home and Away Again
Four years of South African study residency were soon over and he returned to join the Kenya School of Law in 2008. He was attached at Shapley Barret & Co. Advocates in Nairobi for his pupillage thereafter staying on to work.

Realizing his interest in complex law procedures, he was drawn to Intellectual Property law – something that made him seek another scholarship which he got from the University of Nottingham. The branch of law covers rights of ownerships to patents and copyrights of things such as inventions and products born out of creativity.

He did his MA in Intellectual Property Law and again worked but this time as a volunteer with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). The role involved collecting old toys and clothing which were later shipped to Africa and other disadvantaged regions of the world.

About half-way through his course, another opportunity arose for more specialised training in his field; Intellectual Property Law. This time he shifted his base for studies to Geneva, Switzerland at the World Intellectual Property Organization – a UN specialist organization. He also began to work there part time. On completion of his studies, Ivia Kitonga headed back to Nairobi and for a while toyed with the idea of starting his own law firm.

“However,” he says, “I also considered joining another firm but changed my mind because previous employment in a law firm did not sound very appealing.”

He approached his father, Nzamba Kitonga, a veteran Kenyan lawyer. “The deal was he would give me a partnership provided I proved what I was worth to the firm.” This Mr. Kitonga did by marshalling his old contacts in the intellectual property law he had accumulated over the years and the result was multi-million revenues for the firm, though he remains guarded about the exact amount. He was given the partnership and still works in the firm.

Looking Forward
“The flashy suits and nice cars lawyers have don’t come just like that,” Mr. Kitonga points out. “Those guys spend plenty of their time reading and planning their cases.” Personally he discloses that about three to four hours of his time are dedicated to study on daily basis.

But sports also takes priority in his agenda. The Impala Football club which he chairs plays in division two nationally and he also uses the platform to source schooling sponsorships for the players, most of whom come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods of Kawangware, Kibera and Satellite areas.

“I regard myself as fairly successful lawyer and sports and education comes as a means to both empower the young people for the future as well as keep them out of trouble. It’s my way of giving back to the community,” he says.