Prof Phoebe Okowa Nyawade during the interview for the Deputy Chief Justice position at the Supreme Court in Nairobi on February 18, 2013.
The voting process for electing a member of the International Court came to a close on Wednesday, with yet another Kenyan making history when she was announced as the overall winner.
By the end of the third voting exercise, Professor Phoebe Okowa from Kenya gained 104 votes, followed by Charles Cherno Jalloh from Sierra Leone with 61 votes and Taoheed Olufemi Elias from Nigeria, who garnered 23 votes.
She will now join the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' principal judicial organ.
The Kenyan government was quick to celebrate and welcome the outcome, as the country continues to make strides in dominating key positions on the international stage.
Phoebe Okowa Nyawade at a past event.
“I have the honour to inform you that, at the 10040th meeting of the Security Council held on November 12 2025 for the purpose of electing a member of the International Court of Justice to feel the seat that became vacant on 30 September 2025, Ms Phoebe Okowa obtained an absolute majority votes in the Security Council,” Michael Imran Kanu, President of the Security Council said in a letter.
She is succeeding Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusu, a Somali national who resigned in June this year.
Ms Okowa will serve for the remaining period of Mr Yusu, a term which was due to expire on February 5, 2027. Her victory makes the number of members sitting in the court to be 15, which is the required number.
Article 13 of the Statute of the ICJ states that the members of the court “shall be elected for nine years and may be re-elected; provided, however, that of the judges elected at the first election, the terms of five judges shall expire at the end of three years and the terms of five more judges shall expire at the end of six years.”
Career journey
Professor Okowa was born in Kericho County in January 1960, marking the beginning of her journey to becoming one of the most highly regarded legal minds.
Her career journey started back in 987 when she graduated with the First Class Honours in Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Nairobi.
She joined Kenya School of Law for Diploma in Legal Practice a year later.
In 1990, Ms Okowa joined the University of Oxford for Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and she completed her doctoral thesis (DPhil) in Public International Law in 1994 at the University of Oxford.
The professor was admitted to the Bar in 1990, serving henceforth as an advocate for the High Court of Kenya.
In addition to her academic background, Ms Okowa has received a number of awards, prizes and honours throughout her exemplary career.
Honours
Last year, University of Stockholm honoured her as a Doctor of Laws (Honoris Causa). In 2022, the government of Kenya awarded her Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) title for Distinguished Service in International Law.
In 2022, Strathmore University covered her CB Madan Laureate, which is presented to people who have made significant effort (s) to advance the cause of constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in the country.
The rest of the honours include Arts and Humanities Research Council, Research Grant for a project on ‘International Law Questions Arising out of the Disintegration of the Democratic Republic of Congo’ (2005-2006), Wingate Research Grant (1990), and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship in 1988 among others.
Her academic career is equally decorated, starting in 1993 when she served at the University of Oxford as a tutorial assistant at Jesus and Wadham Colleges until 2014. She later rose to become the Professor of Public International Law at Queen Mary University of London.
She also comes in wearing many hearts in her legal career, including being the Counsel for Namibia before the International Court of Justice in a case of Israel’s occupation of Palestine territory.
In 2023 to date, she was named as a co-counsel and Advocate for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before the East African Court of Justice in a case launched by DRC against Rwanda.
From 2019 to 2021, Ms Okowa was the co-counsel for Kenya before the International Court of Justice in a Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean Merits when Somalia launched the case.
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