SING'OEI: Kenyan woman jurist Okowa elected to International Court of Justice

The election of Professor Phoebe Okowa as judge at the International Court of Justice marks the first time a Kenyan has held the position in the court’s 80-year history. 

The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, established in 1945 by the UN Charter. It consists of 15 judges serving nine-year terms elected by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.

The ICJ settles legal disputes between states over issues such as territorial boundaries and treaty violations. By contrast, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutes individuals for international crimes such as genocide and war crimes. Both are based in the Hague.

Her election on November 12, started for me way back on September 8, 2023.

I was transiting through Schiphol Airport Amsterdam that Friday and Kenya's then representative to the Netherlands, Ambassador Margaret Shava, mentioned in her regular briefing that ICJ elections were scheduled for November 2026 and she felt strongly that Kenya should field a candidate. When I enquired whether she had thought of an individual who merited our nomination, she was quick to propose Prof Phoebe Okowa.The suggestion struck an immediate chord. I was already familiar with Prof Okowa's distinguished work in international law and had recently heard her speak on "The Work of the International Law Commission and its Relevance to Kenya and Africa" at a talk organised by Kenya's Foreign Service Academy just weeks earlier in mid-August.

Her scholarship, her command of the field and her deep understanding of how international law could serve African interests made the Ambassador's proposal feel not just appropriate but necessary.

Equally, I was alive to the thin representation of Kenyans at high levels in multilateral institutions, a fact that contrasted sharply with the country’s fairly strong profile internationally.

In the months that followed, we would work closely with Prof Okowa to put together a dossier for her candidacy, a campaign strategy and messaging.

We also set up teams both in Nairobi and our Missions in New York and Geneva principally. We also had support hubs in Brussels, Vienna and Addis Ababa to prepare for the November 2026 election.

In June 2025, however, Somali Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf resigned from the International Court of Justice effective September 30, 2025. That created a vacancy to be filled during the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in November this year.

We were then confronted by an immediate dilemma: whether to skip the by-elections to fill the temporary slot and focus instead on the main election at the end of 2026 or engage with this emergent opportunity. We brainstormed over these options with our teams and the candidate and in the end decided to take the chance sooner rather than later.

It became clear that our choice of the by-elections was rational, as the other distinguished candidates from both Nigeria and Sierra Leone—Dr Olufemi Elias and Professor Charles Jallow, respectively—were focused on the main elections, but then expressed interest in the by-elections.

 Given the timeframe for the campaign was now drastically reduced, our strategy needed to be retooled to accelerate outreach, make a strong pitch, secure commitments by critical coalitions and ensure a positive outcome.

Thanks to the candidate’s distinguished credentials as an international jurist and a member of the International Law Commission as well as her vast network of friends, we were able to secure co-nominations by Namibia, Vanuatu, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and several countries expressing strong support from the starting line.

Invitations for her to speak at forums in Japan, Singapore and Australia, became strong platforms for consolidating peer support leading to eventual support by those countries.

To bolster outreach, engagements with our 70 missions abroad was undertaken through virtual consultations. We dispatched digital demarches to various capitals seeking support for our candidate. Equally, leveraging international summits became opportunities for accelerating the push.

President Ruto’s and PCS Mudavadi’s engagements at the UN General Assembly in New York this year also highlighted the candidature of Professor Okowa in the context of bilateral meetings.

Kenya’s leadership of several multilateral arrangements such as G77 and China in Vienna as well as the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States in Brussels became important platforms to pursue additional commitments.

In a feverish race to the finish, various Reciprocal Support Arrangements were also entered into, conveying Kenya’s support for a diversity of candidatures of interest to different States in exchange for their endorsement of our candidate. 

The last week of the campaign saw final calls and pleas from the capital Nairobi targeted particularly towards the UN Security Council, appreciating that one candidate was from a non-permanent member.

Little wonder that despite the overwhelming support garnered by Kenya’s candidate at the General Assembly, the election went into the fourth round on account of the holdout at the Security Council.

Yet as Kenya savours this significant victory, it is important to appreciate the immense support it received from the continent and beyond. As Professor Okowa⁠ begins‌ her tenure, she‍ will serve on a Court that demands complete‍ independence from national governments.

This is how⁠ it should be. Her duty is to‍ the law and to the global community.⁠ Kenya’s responsibility is to support her as she discharges this noble duty.