Africa-Press – Uganda. The Chief Justice of Kenya, Ms Martha Karambu Koome, yesterday jetted into the country ahead of the 17th International Association of Women Judges conference (IAWJ).
While welcoming her at Entebbe International Airport, Justice Henrietta Wolayo, the president of the National Association of Women Judges in Uganda, said there is need to increase the participation of women in the country’s decision-making and policy development.
“In Uganda, we have made a lot of progress in the Judiciary, right now the ratio of female judicial officers to their male counterparts is 49.2 to 50.8. It is a very small difference; it’s almost like we are at par,” Justice Wolayo said at a press briefing at the airport.
She added: “Those are some of the issues we are going to discuss like limitations to women’s participation in positions of decision making and also access to employment opportunities.”
The theme for the conference, which starts tomorrow and ends on Saturday, is “Women Judges: Breaking Barriers to Equal Justice, Strengthening Institutions.”
“In the past it was difficult for women to break through and be in these positions but now, we are there and celebrating. However, we are asking for more, the conference is meant to inspire young girls to join the legal profession and embrace it,” she said.
Hopeful
Chief Justice Koome, in her remarks, said as judicial officers from various countries gather in Uganda, they will be scrutinising the gains, challenges and forge a way forward on how best they can serve people as women judges.
“We will be talking about other topics like access to justice, how we can make our population access justice,” CJ Koome said.
She said there is need for the 13 chapter countries under IAWJ to learn and adopt legal systems used by one country that can be used in their own judicial systems.
“I will learn a lot from what is being done in Uganda. In Kenya, we are trying to cascade justice to the people especially by embracing the small claims courts that are more spread here in Uganda than in Kenya,” she said.
She added: “We just started the Small Claims Procedure Court last year and yet you have had them longer than we have. We hope by the end of the year, we shall have them cascaded across all courts because it’s a real game changer.”
Justice Koome said Kenya is trying to adopt specialised courts to deal with sexual and gender-based violence just like Uganda.
“They (Uganda) have another Division of the High Court that deals with the international crimes and I am also under pressure to start a similar division to combat crimes like terrorism, piracy and all other international crimes.” CJ Koome stated.
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