Longtime Virginia federal public defender off to Kenya to establish program there

A longtime federal public defender in Richmond is on his way to Kenya for a year to help establish a public defender’s program there.

“I’m very excited about going,” Robert J. Wagner said recently. “I think it’s just a tremendous opportunity to do something different and to do something that hopefully will make a difference for the Kenyan people.”

Wagner, 56, has been with the federal public defender’s office for 15 years. A New York native, he moved to the Washington, D.C., area as a child. After law school, he moved to Richmond in 1990 to work at the Virginia attorney general’s office.

He said his third and last child went off to college last August and, in September, an email arrived from his boss seeking applicants for the posting.

The project is under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training which, among other things, monitors the prosecution of cases in countries around the world to assist with counterterrorism, cybercrime, narcotics and other issues.

Participants also work with the judicial systems of the host countries, Wagner said.

In Kenya, Wagner said, the program has a strong relationship with the Kenyan government and is helping it to build on changes made with the implementation of the country’s constitution in 2010.

So how did a career defense lawyer wind up in a program for prosecutors?

“One of the problems that the Kenyan government and the United States have identified is that their judicial system doesn’t work as efficiently as they’d like it to,” he said.

As a result, suspects — most with no lawyers — can remain locked up for three or four years before their cases get to court.

“While they’re sitting in prison, they get radicalized. So the United States see an opportunity here to come in and help the Kenyans make their system more efficient,” Wagner said.

He said Kenyans believe that giving lawyers to people who are being held will help move their cases through the legal system faster and will help increase efficiency.

“That would help to prevent the radicalization of people,” he said.

When Wagner got the email from his boss — the one that said OPDAT was looking for someone to help form a public defender system in Kenya — he was interested.

“I ran this by my wife. This was a really good time to try something different, so I applied. I went through a couple of interviews in D.C. and was offered the position,” he said.

Wagner had been to Nairobi and wildlife parks in Kenya while on vacation in 1984.

“It’s a beautiful country. It’s very warm and welcoming,” he said.

He underwent a week of diplomatic and administrative training in Washington and another week of tactical training in West Virginia to prepare for hazardous situations, covering such topics as defensive driving and first aid.

The embassy in Nairobi was bombed in 1998, killing 213 people, the vast majority of them Kenyans. Wagner said training is required for people who are going there on diplomatic missions.

He will be primarily working out of the American Embassy in Nairobi.

Wagner, who departed on schedule Sunday, anticipates coming back for at least one visit — his first grandchild is expected in June — and said his wife and other family members plan to visit him while he is there.