Murgor and Murgor Advocates is located in a commercial building owned by a bank.
If you're looking for irony there, you won't find any. Up a 15-floor elevator ride, the hushed offices of the law firm feature multiple doors—one belonging to Cherono Murgor, and at the end of a short corridor, to Senior Counsel Philip Murgor (with a single L, as you'll be politely reminded).
He's astute in mannerism, speech, and reputation. His office, featuring all the trappings of a successful career, showcases 30 years of an indomitable body of legal work, including a stint as Director of Public Prosecutions.
Beneath the studious veneer, under the suit, lies a dedicated weekend farmer. He travels to Eldoret every weekend (when his schedule permits) to wander his farm in gumboots and a hat—a therapeutic passion he deeply cherishes.
Neither a drinker or smoker, he frequently climbs the 15 floors to his office when gym time proves elusive. Golf was abandoned years ago after a moment of reflection: "I asked myself, what am I doing playing golf? So I stopped and filled that time doing my Master's."
Now, after a long hiatus from the greens, he's making his return, hoping the sport will become his "retirement exercise". Good for him because he says he is often accused of not knowing how to relax and have fun. “I’m never unhinged,” he tells BDLife.
Did prosecuting criminals teach you anything about yourself?
Let's start in a slightly different way. You go through school, finish your degree, and you begin to ask yourself, why am I doing this? Is it to contribute to the public good or to serve myself? I could quickly go into private practice and go for the money, or you could go into the public service and serve the public.
So it wasn't really a choice of prosecuting criminals, it was a choice of joining the government to serve the public. I learnt that I was born with a keen sense of justice, of helping victims. Being a public prosecutor strengthened my moral compass.
What do you remember growing up?
I went to boarding school very early in life, from standard three. So one would say that boarding school shaped me just as much as my home environment shaped me. And so a lot of my memories are shaped around those associations.
I think that is vastly different from a person who has grown up in a total home environment, in a day school all his life. Perhaps the home environment impacts such a person a lot more.
Having been shipped off to boarding school so young must have had an impact on your relationship with your parents.
Being in boarding school so young teaches you independence and so the relationship you develop with your parents is slightly different, from the one where you are fully dependent on them all the time. When you are in a day school, every single aspect of your life revolves around home and your parents.
Being in a boarding school makes you appreciate them more because you see them less.
Were you close with your dad?
Fairly. I was closer to my mom. She was a nurse and then a banker and a farmer.
We moved around a lot, a very good thing. Now I find tribal talk very taxing and boring, if not irritating because when you move around a lot and you live with different people, you see them as people and not as tribes.
Does it not destabilise you, moving before you can establish any substantial relationships?
One would say, yes, there are pros and cons. By the time you make friends, you move along.
By the time you settle down in school, you move along. It might affect your academics to a certain degree, but when you look at the pros, I think there's more benefit in that than the cons.
Senior Counsel Philip Murgor poses for a picture after the interview at his office on March 1, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
I am in three WhatsApp groups - primary, secondary and university. And I often read the exchanges in the group and I can see those who didn't grow out of these schools.
Therefore, in my honest belief, there is only so much time you should give to certain interactions and certain relationships because there's time for everything. There was a time for being a child, there was a time for being a teenager, and there was a time for being in university.
All relationships have their place but you find some people are stuck in primary school or university.
I think as you go through the world you should be able to open yourself to other possibilities whenever they present themselves as quickly as possible... I attended Lenana School and I have friends who still talk about rugby, great food, the girls, and high school that we relate to. And I'm like Oh my…
Is there a moment in your life that shaped your life greatly?
I got caught up in the events that followed the 1982 abortive coup as a student and was locked up for six months for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That was a life-changing experience that shaped many of my qualities. Which qualities are these? Now, first, when you practice law you often get into situations where you expose yourself and it can become dangerous.
Many people consider me extremely courageous in the sense that I don't seem to worry about what normal people worry about.
I've been threatened before with death and I have seen lawyers crumble at being threatened. I don't shy away. I don't step down. If I am engaged, I fully engage.
The other experience from 1982 is that I'm very patient. I can wait. If you have time, let's go to war. I have time. The event also made me aware of the fragility of friendships, only two or three of my friends came to visit me at the Industrial Area Prison.
It made me ask myself; if somebody thinks I'm his friend and I believe I'm his friend, what is it that he'll appreciate me doing when he needs my friendship?
When was the last time you felt like you were really afraid?
[Long pause] I can't remember. [Pause] I really can't. [Pause] I haven't been afraid for myself in a long time, but I have been afraid for my family members falling sick or for the safety of my children.
During Covid, our youngest daughter was stuck in the UK, she couldn't come and I couldn't go for her. I was afraid and worried for her.
Is there anything you're questioning this season of your life?
I'm now in that bracket where time feels like it's flying. I have maybe 50,000 pictures on my phone dating back a few years. I look at them and wonder what happened to the time.
Events that happened 10 years ago feel so recent. As a consequence you ask yourself; what have you not accomplished? What is it you should be doing? You get into that mind frame where you begin to feel that you are wasting time if you are doing nothing useful.
You're obviously very good at expressing yourself with words, but what emotion do you struggle to express?
[Long pause] That's a good question. [Long pause]. What kind of emotions are you referring to?
Ah, I see you have opened it out nicely like a wordsmith. [Pause] I suspect you might write that I found it difficult to express myself in that question. [Chuckles]. Being a lawyer, you are generally on a stage and you express the emotion of the moment.
Senior Counsel Philip Murgor poses for a picture after the interview at his office on March 1, 2025.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
I can be suitably angry at a situation, at a court, at my opponent, but it doesn't last longer than the day's hearing. I've heard people say, you're getting too involved in the case. You are getting angry.
And I say, but that is advocacy. So maybe then it may explain to you why a person expressing oneself as a lawyer, a good lawyer, I would say, is mechanical. It can be switched on and off.
What's the one misconception people have of you?
When I was younger, people thought I was aloof, unapproachable, to some extent arrogant. That's not a very good impression because all I was doing was hurrying from point A to B, not ignoring anyone.
I have since made a few adjustments deliberately, I made a conscious decision to engage more.
What's been your experience in fatherhood?
My eldest daughter sits in the first office. She works with us, she's 32. She's a lawyer, a wonderful young lady. Very supportive in the family. I have a son who is now 30. I have a younger daughter who is 22-23.
Lovely children or lovely young adults. My experience has been wonderful. We're very close. We're a small family. And they are supportive of each other. We are supportive of them and they are now becoming supportive of us.
What did you struggle with when raising children?
[Pause] I honestly can’t think of any challenges we experienced. They didn’t go to boarding, so we've grown up with our children in our house, except our two girls have gone abroad for university.
There's nothing that comes to my mind as a problem that we then struggled with. It was all manageable scenarios. Reminding them about the need to finish, reminding them about focusing, the approach to life, not taking anything for granted.
There was just normal guidance that we gave them. But we never had super challenges.
What do you think you were called here on earth to do?
I don't see myself as the special one. I have not had a special calling, but I have been given enough talents by my maker to make a difference. That difference has taken many shapes and forms. I didn’t ask to be the Director of Public Prosecutions, for example, I didn't want it. In fact, I rejected it. However, I saw it as an opportunity to make a difference, to contribute, to make Kenya a better place.
What personal habits do you struggle to change?
I’m a boring person, a teetotaler. I don't smoke. I don't have any habit that bothers me that I struggle to change. There are certain things I wish I could do more, like find enough time to exercise.
But I'm an extremely active person; twice or thrice a week when I haven't exercised enough, I walk up 15 floors. I am beginning to play golf again after many years, and I hope that will be my retirement exercise.
I was blessed to inherit some agricultural land from my parents, and as a consequence, I farm. I do maize, wheat, and livestock. It's my distraction. I enjoy it tremendously. It's paying for itself, but I would love to make money out of it.
Do you see yourself farming seriously at 70?
No, I will always be a lawyer who farms on weekends. When you see me on the farm, you wouldn't know I'm a lawyer; gumboots and hats.
Look at me [shows photos on phone] that’s me and my wife last week…
You look like fancy farmers…
But serious farmers. We take it quite seriously. My wife also has her part of the farm. She does some crops and she does some cows…, the children are not as interested as we are. 30 years ago, I used to drink socially, a beer, but one day I just asked myself, what am I doing this for? I couldn't find a good answer.
I dropped it. I realised I could do wonders when my brain is clear.
When are you unhinged?
I am never unhinged. I am criticised for never really relaxing, as in just taking it easy. I'm always working on something.
Last question, and not so important. You are very light skin; I’ve seen photos of your parents who aren’t as light. Is there a brown or white person in your family tree?
[Smirk] My mother is dead. It’s a question we would have asked her.
