Prof. Kenneth Wyne Mutuma: The Fake Architect
30ᵗʰ December, 2025
By Paul Ngotho, HSC, LL.M, Chartered Arbitrator
Imagine a law professor who teaches law in three universities during the day and masquerades as a qualified architect at night. That is the world of Prof. Kenneth Wyne Mutuma.
Prof Mutuma, the current chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Kenya Branch (CIArbK), is one of Africa’s most decorated arbitrators. He has been honoured, feted and decorated by all national, regional and continental arbitral organisations CIArbK and African Arbitration Association as best this or that. He has earned accolades from Nairobi Legal Awards and the Law Society of Kenya. Having missed Senior Counsel conferment in 2025, he was consoled with a Moran of Burning Spear (MBS), a prestigious national honour conferred by the President of the Republic of Kenya.
He is a Fellow (FCS) of the Institute of Certified Secretaries, where he is the Vice Chairman. He is a certified governance auditor. He is a Council Member of the Foreign Services Academy. He serves as one of Kenya’s representatives in the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
His qualifications, as stated thrice in his co-edited book Handbook on Arbitration in Kenya published by LawAfrica in 2025, include MAAK, which in Kenyan professional circles stands for Member of the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK). However, his listing in the AAK website (https://members.aak.or.ke/directory) is as a graduate member, an entry level membership grade which does not come with initials after the member’s name. AAK has confirmed in writing to the author that Prof Mutuma is not allowed to use MAAK or any other AAK initials. The AAK constitution prohibits the unauthorised use of its initials, for obvious reasons. A graduate of an architecture degree must undergo years of apprenticeship and sit statutory exams to quality as an architect. Such a member purporting to be an MAAK is like an LLB graduate claiming to be a member of the bar.
Prof. Mutuma claims to be “a qualified Architect” in his profile as published in Wyne & Associates website https://wyneandassociates.com/prof-kenneth-wyne-mutuma/ (accessed on 24th November 2025). The Architects and Quantity Surveyors Act Cap 525 of the Laws of Kenya, at s. 3, restricts the use of the name, title or style “architect” to persons who are registered under that Act. Any person who contravenes that provision is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand shillings.
Prof Mutuma does not feature in the annual gazette notices issued by the Board of Registration of Architects & Quantity Surveyors, established under Cap 525 for the registration and regulation of architects and quantity surveyors. For good measure, the Registrar of BORAQS confirmed to the author, in writing on 2nd December 2025, that Kenneth Wyne Mutuma was “not in any register of the Board”.
Therefore, with respect to being either MAAK or “a qualified Architect”, Prof Kenneth Wyne Mutuma is a certified imposter. Personal integrity aside, quack architects have been identified as a major cause of building collapsing in Kenya. Occupants of any building designed by Prof. Kenneth Wyne Mutuma beware!
Masquerading as an architect has not been in vain. It has earned Prof. Mutuma appointments by unsuspecting parties, counsel and independent appointing authorities as an arbitrator, adjudicator and dispute board member in construction disputes. The CIArbK appointed him as a sole dispute board member in a certain engineering dispute. Reference is made to Njoki Mwangi J’s ruling dated 28th February 2025 in KTDA Power Company Ltd v. Jiangxi Water & Hydropower Construction Company Ltd (Commercial Miscellaneous Application) E615 of 2024) removing him from that role.
Interestingly, at least three of his co-directors in CIArbK and scores of CIArbK members are MAAK. At least some of them should be aware that Prof. Mutuma is neither an MAAK nor a qualified architect. They are silent facilitators of this fraud. The only explanation of their silence is that they would not wish to bite the hand that feeds them with arbitrator appointments.
This article is not only about Prof Mutuma being a trickster but also that his manifest lack of integrity affects others. The certified impostor is the man who, as the current Chairman of CIArbK, is entrusted by hundreds of Kenya and foreign companies, individuals, the national/county governments and government entities to make fair appointment of arbitrators in multi-million and billion shilling disputes. As demonstrated with a court ruling above, he has been appointed as an arbitrator and construction adjudicator in various high-value disputes.
Abraham Lincoln’s famous saying that “you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time” is adapted from John Lydgate Lincoln’s 14th-century poem. Prof. Mutuma’s day of reckoning has come. It was bound to.
Kenya’s infamous “Fake Lawyer” Brian Mwenda, who allegedly won numerous court cases for his clients before he was exposed, will soon be honoured with a documentary titled The Lawyer. It is time for a sequel titled The Fake Architect featuring Kenya’s Law Prof. Kenneth Wyne Mutuma MBS, PhD, C. Arb, FCS, Corporate Governance Expert and Certified Governance Auditor.
What next? Zilch. CIArbK will do nothing. The Institute of Certified Secretaries will do next to nothing. AAK and BORAQS will do nothing for now, but they will eventually grant him the necessary credentials. With such an impressive profile, Prof. Kenneth Wyne Mutuma will become Senior Counsel sooner than later. So, the circus will continue. Kenya ni nchi ya ajabu – Kenya is full of wonders!
This is part of Paul Ngotho’s incisive series of articles on arbitrator integrity in Kenyan and international arenas. Some of the articles have been published in various peer-reviewed journals while others are available as conference presentation videos in his website www.ngotho.co.ke. His contacts are ngothoprop@yahoo.com and +254 728 130 925.
