Professor Phoebe Okowa’s election to International Court of Justice celebrated as milestone for Kenya

The historic election of Kenyan advocate and legal scholar Professor Phoebe Okowa as an ICJ judge marks a proud moment for Kenya and a resounding affirmation of the East African nation’s growing influence as a champion of justice, peace, and global cooperation, says Musalia Mudavadi, the Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya.

Mudavadi, who is also Kenya’s Foreign & Diaspora Affairs cabinet secretary, is one of many in the diplomatic and legal communities, in Kenya and beyond, to welcome and celebrate Professor Okowa’s election, after several rounds of voting before the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in New York yesterday.

“Professor Okowa, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, has built an illustrious career marked by academic excellence and international distinction,” continued Musavadi. “Her achievement is an inspiration to scholars, jurists, and every Kenyan who believes in the power of intellect and integrity to shape the world for the better.”

Following her election yesterday, Professor Okowa becomes the first Kenyan to serve on the ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (aka ‘the World Court’), and is just the seventh female ICJ judge, compared to more than 100 men who have sat on the Court since it officially began its work in the Hague in 1946.

“Congratulations Phoebe Okowa … This election is an outstanding personal achievement and is one that the Law Society of Kenya shares with great pride as we wish the good Professor all the best in this tour of service in advancing international justice,” says Faith Odhiambo, the President of the Law Society of Kenya, who noted that Professor Okowa had also made history in 2021 as the first African woman to serve as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission (ILC).

Currently a Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary University in London, Okowa was born in Kericho County in Kenya, and went on to shine academically. She graduated top of her law school class, becoming the first woman to be awarded a first-class LLB (Hons) degree in the history of the Faculty of Law of the University of Nairobi, then went on to complete postgraduate legal studies at Oxford University, earning a doctorate in Public International Law in 1994.

An advocate of the High Court of Kenya, Professor Okowa has advised and represented governments and NGOs on questions of international law before a range of domestic and international courts, including the ICJ itself. In 2016, she was appointed a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

Professor Okowa’s election was widely welcomed by many nations, with Iceland’s mission to the UN noting Okowa becoming the ICJ’s first judge from Kenya and the seventh woman to sit on the bench was “an important step towards judicial gender parity”, and Australian ambassador James Larsen noting she was joining a bench who “demonstrate the highest expertise and integrity in advancing the rule of law”.

Established by the UN Charter in June 1945, the ICJ is composed of 15 judges elected for a nine-year term by the General Assembly and the Security Council. The Court has a two-fold role: 1) to settle, in accordance with international law,

legal disputes submitted to it by States; and, 2) to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorised UN organs and agencies.

The 15 judges must come from 15 different countries. The court as a whole must represent the main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world.

Professor Okowa was elected to fill the role left vacant by Somalian judge Abdulqawi Yusuf, a former ICJ President who resigned effective 30 September. She was elected as a member of the ICJ with immediate effect, and will hold office for the remainder of Yusuf’s term, which was due to expire on 5 February 2027.