He left Nairobi and enrolled in the University of Dar es Salaam, where he graduated in 1983 and 1984 with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law.
He is also chairman of the board of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, which is registered in Nairobi as a non-profit political advocacy group or NGO.
[9] In December 2007, following the resignation of his predecessor, R. Nils Olsen, Jr., Mutua was appointed interim dean of the Buffalo School of Law.
During an interview for the position, Attorney General Githu Muigai questioned Mutua over his tweets not recognizing the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as President of Kenya in March 2013.
Mutua responded that he would have no problems working with the President if he was appointed Chief Justice, and that his comments were made as a private citizen.
[14] In addition, the Attorney General questioned his qualifications for chief justice on the grounds that he has not resided in Kenya or paid Kenyan taxes for over thirty years, and has never tried a case or served in any judicial office.
[15] When the interviews ended, the commission announced that it had settled on Kenyan Court of Appeal Judge David Maraga as the nominee for the Office of Chief Justice.
[16] Some faculty members claimed "Mutua’s management style divided the school at a time of great economic turmoil....
In their eyes, Mutua shook up a moribund faculty, reached out to alums who felt alienated from the school and succeeded in raising $23 million in private donations.
[23] In 2016, the campus newspaper criticized Mutua for hiring eighteen new professors during a decade in which the law school's enrollment was dropping by almost 40% alleging that the imbalance resulted in the resignations, buy-outs, or early retirements of more than half the faculty and a tuition that doubled in the aftermath of his deanship.