Effie Owuor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court of Appeal Judge | |
Effie Owuor (born 1943) is a Kenyan lawyer and judge who was the country's first female State Counsel, Magistrate, High Court Judge, and Court of Appeal Judge.
Effie Owuor | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Court of Appeal Judge | |
Effie Owuor (born 1943) is a Kenyan lawyer and judge who was the country's first female State Counsel, Magistrate, High Court Judge, and Court of Appeal Judge.
Owuor was born in 1943 in Kakamega and attended Butere Girls High School and Alliance Girls High School. [1] [2] She graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1967, which was at the time the only university offering law degrees in East Africa. [2] [3]
Owuor became a State Counsel in the Attorney General's Chambers in 1967. [2] She became Kenya's first female magistrate in 1970 and senior magistrate in 1974. [3]
In 1982, Owuor was appointed by President Daniel arap Moi to the High Court of Kenya, the first woman to sit on the bench. [3] [4] In 1983, she was appointed alongside Cecil Miller and Chunilal Madan to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate corruption allegations against former Attorney General Charles Njonjo. [1]
Owuor was also appointed a goodwill ambassador to UNICEF. [2] [5] [6] In 1993, she was appointed chair of the Task Force on Laws Relating to Women, which resulted in the passage of the 2006 Sexual Offences Act. [5] She was a commissioner on the Kenya Law Reform Commission from 1984 until 2000. [1]
After the NARC government came to power, Owuor was named in Aaron Ringera's report seeking to investigate the judiciary and opted to retire rather than fight malpractice charges. [1] Under the Mwai Kibaki government, she was nominated to the International Criminal Court in 2006 but her appointment was challenged due to her mention in the Ringera report. [1] [7] Owuor withdrew and the position on the bench was taken by fellow female Kenyan judge Joyce Aluoch. [2]
Owuor and Aluoch were the first two members of the Kenya Women's Judges Association, an affiliate of the International Women Judges Association, formed in 1993 when they were the only two female judges in the country. [5]
Owuor retired from the court in 2008, but continues to chair the Sexual Offences Task Force. [5]
Owuor was married to research scientist Beneah Majisu, whose sister was married to Amos Wako. They divorced. [8] [9] She has six children. [2]
Owuor was an advocate against customary practices, [6] and she herself was caught up in the Luo custom of widow inheritance when her second husband died. She said, "the Luo community treats widows like dirty people who have to be cleansed before they can integrate into the society once again. As the chairperson of a government task force that is reviewing the legal regime and how it affects women, it is humiliating to be harassed by men when I am still mourning my husband." [1] [10] She refused to be "inherited" by her husband's family. [11]
The politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system in accordance with a new constitution passed in 2010.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022.
Amos Wako is a former Attorney General of Kenya and the first senator for Busia County from 2013 to 2017. Wako won the senatorial seat after defeating former minister of finance Chris Okemo. He won the senator seat on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) being led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Raila Amolo Odinga is a Kenyan politician who was the prime minister of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Langata Constituency from 1992 to 2013 and has been the Leader of Opposition in Kenya since 2013. He is the leader of Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party.
Charity Kaluki Ngilu is a Kenyan politician and the second governor elected for Kitui County. She unsuccessfully vied to be President of the Republic of Kenya in 1997. She served as Minister for Health from 2003 until 2007 and Minister of Water and Irrigation from April 2008 to 2013. She also served as Cabinet Secretary for Land, Housing and Urban Development from 2013 until 2015.
General elections were held in Kenya on 27 December 2007. Voters elected the President, and members of the National Assembly. They coincided with the 2007 Kenyan local elections.
General elections were held in Kenya on 29 December 1997 to elect the President and the members of the National Assembly. The result was a victory for the ruling Kenya African National Union, which won 107 of the 210 seats in the National Assembly, and whose candidate Daniel arap Moi won the presidential election. Following the election, Moi appointed a further 12 members to the Assembly.
Alliance Girls' High School (AGHS) is a public national boarding school for girls located near the small town of Kikuyu in Kiambu County, 20 km from Nairobi. Founded in 1948 as the African Girls' High School, it is within walking distance from its brother school Alliance High School.
Aaron Gitonga RingeraE.B.S. is a Kenyan lawyer who served as a judge and as the former director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC). He was born in Githongo, Meru.
The Constitution of Kenya is the supreme law of the Republic of Kenya. There have been three significant versions of the constitution, with the most recent redraft being enabled in 2010. The constitution was presented to the Attorney General of Kenya on 7 April 2010, officially published on 6 May 2010, and was subjected to a referendum on 4 August 2010. The new Constitution was approved by 67% of Kenyan voters. The constitution was promulgated on 27 August 2010.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Kenya or the situation in the Republic of Kenya was an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the responsibility for the 2007–2008 post-election violence in Kenya. The 2007–2008 crisis followed the presidential election that was held on 27 December 2007. The Electoral Commission of Kenya officially declared that the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was re-elected however supporters of the opposition candidate Raila Odinga accused the government of electoral fraud and rejected the results. A series of protests and demonstrations followed, and fighting—mainly along tribal lines—led to an estimated 1,200 deaths and more than 500,000 people becoming internally displaced.
Joyce Aluoch is a Kenyan lawyer who served as Judge of the International Criminal Court from 2009 until 2018. She is a former judge of the High Court of Kenya. In addition to her career as a judge, she was the First Chairperson of the Committee of African Union Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child from 2003 to 2009. She has also served as the inaugural head of the family division of the Kenyan High Court and a member of the Court of Appeal.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) of Kenya is an independent Commission established under Article 171 of the Constitution of Kenya. Its mandate as stipulated in Article 172 of the Constitution is to promote and facilitate the independence and accountability of the Judiciary and the efficient, effective and transparent administration of justice. The commission has 11 members with the initial team appointed in December 2010.
The Court of Appeal of Kenya is established under Article 164 of the constitution of Kenya and consists of a number of judges, being not fewer than twelve.
Smokin Wanjala is a Kenyan lawyer and a justice of the Supreme Court of Kenya. He holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He also holds a Master of Laws degree from the Columbia University in the United States and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nairobi. Wanjala lectured at the University of Nairobi for 15 years, teaching international law, international human rights law, land law and criminal law.
The 2003 Kenya Appeal Judges Tribunal was a tribunal set up on 15 October 2003 to investigate the conduct of appellate judges of the Court of Appeal of Kenya following the 2003 Ringera Judiciary Report.
Asenath Bole Odaga was a Kenyan publisher and author of novels, plays, children's books, and other literary works. Odaga also promoted literature in Kenyan languages and the study of oral literature by writing in Luo and co-authoring a guide to oral literature for students.
Philomena Mbete Mwilu is a Kenyan lawyer and judge, who has served as the assistant Chief Justice of Kenya and Vice President of the Supreme Court of Kenya since 28 October 2016. Following the retirement of Chief Justice David Maraga, and before Martha Koome was appointed as the Chief Justice, she served as Acting Chief Justice and President of the Supreme court of Kenya from 11 January 2021 to 19 May 2021, making her the first woman to hold that office.
The 2018 Kenya handshake was a political truce made on 9 March 2018 between the then Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and former Kenyan Prime Minister, Raila Odinga. The two had been the leaders of opposing political factions amidst widespread political violence and civil unrest and had previously faced one another in the contested 2017 Kenyan general election. Under the "handshake" agreement, both figures agreed to end their political feud. The two did this on an agreement that Uhuru Kenyatta, the then-sitting president, would support Raila Odinga in the coming Elections to become president. Azimio coalition was formed, Uhuru became the chairman, and Raila Odinga became the presidential candidate deputised by Martha Karua. They lost to President William Ruto, who was then Kenyatta's deputy. They petitioned William Ruto's victory in a supreme court, and chief justice Martha koome dismissed it as a wild goose, where she referred to their evidence as Hot air. Today The Handshake brothers are still seen together demonstrating and picketing in the streets of Nairobi and kisumu demanding the opening of servers by IEBC Kenya's Electrol body, where they claim their 8 August victory is.
Martha Karambu Koome is a Kenyan advocate who is currently serving as the Chief Justice of Kenya, and is the first woman to occupy the post.