Justice Waki was awarded the Jurist of the Year award for 2008.  He qualified from the University of Nairobi with Bachelor of Laws Degree in 1974 before admission to the Roll of Advocates in 1975.  For twenty years thereafter, he practiced law privately in all Kenyan courts until his appointment as a Puisne Judge of the High court of Kenya in October 1995.  After nine years, in June 2004, he was promoted to the Court of Appeal where he sits currently.  He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Kenya).  He has also been appointed as an alternate judge for the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Hon Judge Waki represents the Court of Appeal in the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association and the East African Judges and Magistrates Association.  He is a member of the Commonwealth Magistrates & Judges Association in his own right.

In the reform Agenda of the Judiciary, he is a member of the Judiciary Rules Committee and the Expeditious Disposal of Cases Committee.  The general mandate of these two committees is to ensure justice is easily accessible to the consumers of it and that backlogs of cases eliminated. He is also the Chairman of the Technical co-ordination committee of the Governance, Justice Law and Order Sector (GJLOS) Programme, a reform initiative of the government and international development partners focusing on the core institutions that affect the administration of Justice.

Hon Judge Waki was the first in the history of Kenya to appear publicly before a constitutional tribunal and successfully resisted allegations which were “false, malicious, trumped up and mischievous”.

He was appointed in May 2008 by the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Team, and the President of Kenya, as the Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (often referred to as the Waki Commission).  He submitted the report of the commission to President Kibaki and Dr. Kofi Annan, the head of the Panel of Eminent African Personalities on October 2008.  This report has been the foundation of Kenya's ongoing reform process, and the Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court.