The Chief Justice appointee, Martha Koome, will today take her Oath of Office at State House, Nairobi.
Koome, the first ever woman Chief Justice, will afterwards be received by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), the Deputy Chief Justice, Philomena Mwilu, Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Anne Amadi, Supreme Court Judges and the Judiciary Leaders Advisory Council (JLAC) at her new office at the Supreme Court.
According to a statement from the Judiciary sent to newsrooms, Monday, May 24, 2021, the Judiciary is expected to host an Assumption of Office ceremony to handover ‘instruments of power’ to the new Chief Justice.
Martha Koome was appointed as Chief Justice of the Republic of Kenya on May 19, 2021 by President Uhuru Kenyatta following the approval by the National Assembly on Wednesday this week.
Koome comes into a full tray of heavy tasks, key among them is convincing the executive to swear in the 41 Judges, a huge backlog of cases, spanning over five years.
Koome also has to tackle the issue of underfunding which was vastly mentioned by various interviewers during the CJ interviews that was conducted by Judicial Service Commission.
Lady Justice Koome pursued her law degree at the University of Nairobi, where she graduated in 1986 before proceeding to the Kenya School of Law the following year.
She set up her private legal practice in 1988, then later joined the Judiciary in 2003 and practiced across various stations all over the country, during which time she also served as a council member of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).
Lady Justice Koome, who has 33 years of legal experience, co-founded and chaired the Federation of Women Lawyers, which campaigns for women’s rights and offers poor women free legal services and contributed to a landmark 2010 constitution.
She proceeded to the University of London where she completed her Master’s degree (LL.M) in Public International Law in 2010.
In 2011, she was elevated to the Court of Appeal and in September that same year, she was elected the Chairperson of the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association.
By Alice Gworo
