Women judges breaking down barriers to justice

For long, there were no women in Kenya's judicial space. When I was admitted to the Bar in 1987, the number of women in legal practice and Judiciary was negligible. The first woman High Court judge, Lady Justice Effie Owuor was only appointed in 1982.

She later became the first woman judge of the Court of Appeal, the then apex court in 1998. She was joined by Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch who was appointed a High Court judge in 1993 and subsequently as a judge of Appeal in 2007. Lady Justices Owuor and Aluoch were the first two founding members of Kenya Women's Judges Association (KWJA) in 1993.

They were later joined by Lady Justices Roselyn Nambuye, Mary Ang'awa and Sarah Ondeyo, a formidable team that encouraged women in legal profession to join the Judiciary. These gallant women steered KWJA programmes aimed at stemming out systemic and endemic gender discrimination.

Their efforts solidified voices of the civil society and human rights advocates such as FIDA-Kenya and culminated in the gains we celebrate in the transformative 2010 Constitution and a litany of other progressive laws that guarantee gender equality and equity.

It has not been an easy journey to a position where Kenya now has the rare distinction of having the positions of Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Chief Registrar of the Judiciary occupied by women. We crossed the Rubicon in May 2021, and we regard it a rare opportunity to transform the Judiciary by eradicating all barriers that impede access to justice for all, especially the vulnerable.

Across Africa, women are increasingly breaking barriers to occupy positions of leadership within the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.

In Kenya, we have 91 male against 81 female judges; 298 male against 295 female judicial officers (magistrates). These changes mirror similar developments in the legal profession where recent trends show more female lawyers being admitted to the Bar.

These changes echo broader cultural shifts that recognise women's potential as leaders, importance of supporting women to leadership, and a growing sense that public institutions, the private sector, and even nations cannot thrive if half of their talent pool is unutilised.

The more women get into positions of judicial leadership, the freer those women are free to be themselves. This is so given that isolated at the top, women in leadership are under pressure to assume and adapt to male norms. Not that there is anything wrong with the male norms. They are perfect. For men.

However, women can have, and do have their own norms and must set their own boundaries. We must be unapologetic about being the best versions of ourselves and inevitably, we find society will always shift to accommodate us.

We must always remember that we grow when we lift other women up. Contrary to popular belief, there is space for all of us at the top because we all have different contributions, strengths and aspirations.

This is an abridged version of a speech delivered by Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya at the 17th IAWJ Africa Region Conference in Kampala Uganda