Kenya’s Phoebe Okowa Elected Judge at the International Court of Justice

• Nov 13, 2025

Kenyan legal scholar Professor Phoebe Okowa has been elected as a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, following months of intense diplomatic lobbying by the Kenyan government.

Okowa secured the prestigious position after four rounds of voting by both the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Security Council (UNSC), defeating three other contenders. She won by an absolute majority in both bodies, earning Kenya a historic place at the world’s highest judicial institution.

According to a statement by UNSC President Michael Imran Kanu, Okowa’s election took place during the Council’s 10,040th meeting on November 12, 2025, to fill a seat that became vacant in September. She will serve a nine-year term alongside 14 other judges, with elections for five seats held every three years to maintain continuity at the Court.

Okowa’s victory marks a significant milestone—she becomes the first Kenyan by birth to serve as a judge at the ICJ and only the fifth African to hold the position. The last Kenyan to sit on the ICJ bench was Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, a naturalised Kenyan originally from Somalia, who served from 2009 and even became ICJ President from 2018 to 2021.

The ICJ, based in The Hague, settles legal disputes between states and provides advisory opinions on international legal questions referred by the UN. Its judges are not directly nominated by governments but by national groups within the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), each allowed to nominate up to four candidates. To win, a candidate must gain at least 97 votes in the UNGA and 8 votes in the UNSC—an absolute majority in both.

Before her election, Professor Okowa served in the International Law Commission (ILC), where she began a five-year term in 2023 as the first African woman member. A respected advocate of the High Court of Kenya, she holds a PhD from Oxford University and has extensive experience in international law, having advised governments and global institutions on complex legal issues, including cases before the ICJ.

The ICJ’s statutes require judges to be of high moral character and possess recognised competence in international law, ensuring global representation across different legal systems.

Following her election, several nations congratulated Kenya and Okowa, acknowledging the country’s diplomatic efforts during the eight-month lobbying campaign that began in March 2025.