By NERIMA WAKO-OJIWA

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Every now and then, I get asked if I am a lawyer. I sort of smirk and wonder why that seems to be such an important question when a person meets me for the first time.

Growing up, I always enjoyed asking questions. Debating about diverse topics such as space, religion, education, whatever the subject, I would somehow find content to engage. Talking for hours with my younger brother, who is also quite argumentative was what we would do to pass time on Friday nights. Looking back, if there was a debaters club in my school, I would have been an active member.

Fast forward to today, what we see, if you are good at debating, the career predestined for you is to be a lawyer. However, is this necessarily true?

So I did a little experiment; because I sit on various panels on television, I thought I’d try working whether I mainly interact with lawyers. The first show I was on after deciding to do this experiment, I sat on a panel with two other individuals, and you guessed it – they both studied law, though one of them was not a practising lawyer. I thought, is this mere coincidence?

When I travel, watching local television is something that I must do in every country, not because I am bored but to understand what different societies find entertaining and how it is portrayed.

In other countries, in political shows, you will hardly find politicians. As a matter of fact, you will see journalists scrutinising a particular story or even policy analysts, individuals in that sector or researchers who have studied that particular subject.

But in Kenya, you will mainly find politicians. So I began to dig deeper and this time looking at politicians, I began to realise that many of them, especially political veterans, had a background in law. Others had moved into higher education and were professors.

Learned friends?

Lawyers call themselves learned friends, but are some levels of our government, not the county government, but the national one, slowly changing into an environment mainly for the learned? What we are indirectly fed is that to be able to articulate you must be formally educated, not just any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Then it made me think, if I were to ask randomly what are some of the things you remember watching keenly on television? It would be court cases, football (Premier League) or Mexican soap operas. These are the items that a group of people can be sitting around a table at lunch discussing passionately, and if you missed it, you will surely be the fly on the wall. Invisible to members at the table, awkwardly smiling at jokes you will not get but still wanting to be part of the group.

The only thing local in all three categories were the court cases, especially high-profile cases. Since a large chunk of our legal system and our way of being is British, being a former colony, some would argue that it has no effect on how we live today. That is a lie. Look at our parliament, looks very close to the building next to Big Ben in London.

Look at the uniforms that judges or barristers wear, from the colours to the wigs. The periwig was introduced by Charles II and the black robes remained that way after they wore them to mourn his death. Though now wigs are hardly worn in England unless for ceremonial occasions, we still see them being used in Kenya. Wigs used to signify a sense of objectivity, also to conceal identity in the past, and a sense of status in society, showing that they are above the average man.

What happens when we are all learned friends? We know so much that there is no room for growth. The House of Lords in England is interesting because of how people from different backgrounds can be appointed to it: Any individual in the business sector, or healthcare, banking, whatever the field, to give opinions as they discuss policies from the point of view of expertise.

We need more doctors, bankers, musicians, all sorts of professions sharing opinions. Because in our society, there all sorts of people that need to be represented: Our country is not a court.

Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is executive director of Siasa Place. Twitter: @NerimaW