Sources
Further Reading & Media
The links below are to accounts and records that mention the Honourable Justice Chanan Singh of Kenya (1908–1977). Short descriptions are given so that the original may be read in its own words. Copyrighted text and images are not reproduced here, except for one photograph that Wikimedia Commons marks as public domain, which also appears in the Gallery.
Featured source
Ramgarhia Legend of the Month, February 2005
A community profile, “Chanan Singh Hunjan (Ramgarhia Legend of the Month),” published on ramgarhiakom.com in February 2005, is one of the longer public accounts of his life. It gives his family name as Hunjan, describes his rise from a railway fitter to the Bar and public life, and says that he “had served as chief judge of Kenya High Court.” It also records that in 1977 he visited a daughter in Canada, where he passed from a heart attack; that he established a library and donated it to the Government of Kenya; and that a road in Nairobi was named after him.
The live page did not load in November 2026 (the site returned an error). A preserved copy can be read in the Wayback Machine.
Read the February 2005 profile
Original address: http://www.ramgarhiakom.com/2005/l_doc/02_feb.html. No other page on ramgarhiakom.com with his name in the address was found.
Family papers and the memorial blog
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Autobiography of Justice C. Singh
His own account of his life, presented in full on this memorial. It records his appointment, in April 1964, as Judge of the High Court of Kenya.
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Pheroze Nowrojee, “Chanan Singh – Freedom Fighter (1908–1977)”
A contemporary tribute by the Kenyan lawyer Pheroze Nowrojee, preserved in the family papers. The title and date of the periodical are not marked on the cutting.
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Emman Omari, “The forgotten Mashujaa of Kenya”
A Nation feature that included him among figures the paper described as insufficiently remembered, and called him a Kenyan of Indian descent who fought for racial equality in the early 1950s.
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Family memorial blog
The family’s earlier memorial, including the first tribute of 26 December 2014 and Rahul Nath’s remembrance of Nairobi bookstores.
Articles and essays
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“Why muhindi with kilemba and thick beard is called ‘Kalasinga’”
A later popular history of Sikhs in Kenya. It notes that Justice Chanan Singh “chaired the Law Society of Kenya for a year to 1959, before becoming Kenya’s first Kalasinga Chief Justice.”
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Zarina Patel, “Marginalized, Forgotten and Revived Political Actors”
Names him among lawyers who, in Patel’s words, “gave their all” in defending Mau Mau suspects and the Kapenguria Six. She also calls him “one of Kenya’s most accomplished public figures,” a Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary to Jomo Kenyatta, and writes that “he never rose beyond the position of Assistant Minister in Kenya’s independent government.” That last remark concerns political office; it does not mention his later appointment to the High Court.
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“The Indomitable Yash Pal Ghai – Part 1”
Recalls that the constitutional lawyer Yash Pal Ghai’s closest friend in youth was Dushyant Singh, “the son of esteemed High Court Judge Chanan Singh.”
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Ramnik Shah, “Politics of the law in Kenya: A historical perspective”
Includes “Chanan Singh” in a list of early presidents of the Law Society of Kenya, and later describes him stepping in to defend lawyers in a debate in the Legislative Council.
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“Tailors, lawyers, rebels: Indians’ forgotten role in Kenya’s Uhuru”
Mentions Chanan Singh among those who visited India’s High Commissioner Apa Pant in the late 1940s. The same article groups “C.B. Madan and Chanan Singh” as “both Punjabi Hindus elected to the Legislative Council,” which does not match other accounts of his Sikh background and should be read with care.
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“Chanan Singh Hunjan (1908–1977)”
A later web profile that closely follows the 2005 Ramgarhia account, and also describes him as “Chief Judge of Kenya High Court.”
Official and reference sources
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Law Society of Kenya
Lists “Justice Chanan Singh” as president of the Law Society of Kenya for 1958–1959, which agrees with his autobiography and with Nowrojee.
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Makhan Singh (trade unionist)
Notes that Chanan Singh, later Justice Chanan Singh, defended Makhan Singh at a trial in Nyeri.
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Report of the Maize Commission of Inquiry
The published report of the commission of which, according to his autobiography, he was chairman in 1965–1966. The catalogue entry is public; the PDF itself is a large official document, held by the parliamentary library.
Exhibitions, archives and official notices
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The Asian African Heritage: Identity and History
Records that “Chanan Singh was Parliamentary Secretary to President Kenyatta from 1963–1964,” and that he was among advocates who “defended in hundreds of Mau Mau Causes and appeals.” (His autobiography dates the parliamentary secretaryship to the Prime Minister, 1963–1964.)
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Kenya Independence Conference Opens in London, September 1963
The catalogue describes a photograph of part of the Kenya Government delegation: “From left to right: Mr. Chanan Singh, Mr. P. Ngei, Mr. S.O. Ayodo and Mr. L.G. Sagani.” The print is held for consultation in Cambridge and has not been copied onto this memorial.
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“Commissions on the Laws of Marriage and Succession in Kenya”
Lists “The Hon. Mr. Justice Chanan Singh” as a member of the Commission on succession appointed on 17 March 1967, chaired by Humphrey Slade, M.P. The journal article itself is behind a publisher paywall; the appointment is also recorded in the Kenya Gazette.
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Dana April Seidenberg, “Heirlooms that connect Indian Ocean cultures centuries apart”
A later magazine feature which, in passing, describes Deepa, wife of Ajay Dosaja, as “granddaughter of famed Kenyan high court judge, Chanan Singh.”
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“Sikhs in Kenya”
A short heritage note listing “Chanan Singh Hunjan (b. 1908–1977)” among well-known Sikhs of Kenya, as first Sikh Chief Judge of the Kenya High Court, and mentioning his defence of Makhan Singh in 1950.
Photographs
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Justice Chanan Singh interviewed for Voice of Kenya, Nairobi, November 1968
A photograph of Justice Chanan Singh (right) being interviewed by Chaman for Voice of Kenya. It is shown, with credit, in the Gallery. No recording of the broadcast itself has been found.
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Justice Chanan Singh, Nairobi, 20 November 1968
A color photograph dated 20 November 1968, from the same archive as the Voice of Kenya interview picture. It is shown, with credit, in the Gallery.
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A note on what was not found
The exact calendar date he passed, and the periodical title and date of the Nowrojee tribute and of the Daily Nation “forgotten Mashujaa” feature, have not yet been established. A current map confirmation of a Nairobi road in his name was not found in this search, though the Ramgarhia profile states that one was named after him. Open collections of Kenya Law reports did not yield a readily confirmed set of his judgments.