Professor Makau Mutua named among world’s leading scholars

President William Ruto’s Constitutional Advisor, Professor Makau Mutua, has earned a spot among the world’s most distinguished legal minds, as per the 2024 Scholar GPS rankings.

Mutua is recognized as falling within the top 0.5% of legal scholars globally.

He has received the prestigious Top Scholar Lifetime title, placing 295th worldwide in the General Law category and 46th in the field of Human Rights.

Scholar GPS defines Highly Ranked Scholars as individuals with exceptional academic influence, determined by factors such as publication volume, citation count, and overall impact as measured by the h-index.

According to the platform, its analysis draws from over 30 million detailed scholar profiles, based on more than 200 million academic publications across 350,000 specialties.

This extensive data enables the identification of top scholars within specific disciplines and across all fields for the first time.

To earn the Highly Ranked Scholar status, a scholar must be in the top 0.05 percent of the rankings. The evaluation accounts for both lifetime and recent five-year scholarly contributions, adjusting for co-authorship and excluding self-citations.

The rankings also encompass scholars who are currently active, inactive, retired, or deceased.

The global recognition of Professor Mutua comes just weeks after his appointment as Senior Advisor on Constitutional Affairs in President Ruto’s Executive Office.

In an official statement dated April 30, 2025, President Ruto commended Mutua’s extensive expertise in legal, constitutional, and human rights issues.

"I have appointed Prof. Makau Mutua as the Senior Advisor of Constitutional Affairs in the Executive Office of the President. Prof. Mutua brings a wealth of experience in legal, constitutional, and human rights matters. Congratulations, Prof. Mutua. I welcome you to join a dynamic team of public servants in the implementation of our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda," Ruto announced.