We qualify for global posts, declares Aluoch

• First Kenyan to serve at the International Criminal Court points to openings abroad

Kenya’s first judge to serve at the International Criminal Court, Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch, has urged fellow citizens to apply for international jobs.

Speaking at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Amsterdam on Sunday evening, she said her election to the panel was a clear indication that Kenyans had what it takes.

“There are not many Kenyans in the international arena, yet we are qualified just like others out there,” she said.

God’s candidate

She noted: ”It was a real battlefield and it took real lobbying to clinch the seat. Some competitors had lobbied for a year while my name was forwarded in October,” she said, adding: “I was God’s candidate and nobody can beat God’s candidate.”

Ecstatic relatives, friends, supporters and journalists had camped at the airport, awaiting her arrival.

She will serve for nine years from March 11. The ICC is a permanent court that tries people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

She was elected during the resumption of the seventh session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court at UN headquarters in New York.

“I’m very happy indeed and this is for you and me; I got overwhelming support, garnering 100 out of 108 votes. The world has confidence in Kenya and its people,” she said.

Among those at the airport to welcome her was Mrs Honorine Kiplagat, a national trustee of the Kenya Girl Guides Association and wife of veteran diplomat Bethuel Kiplagat.

In 1988, Lady Justice Aluoch was appointed to the Committee of World Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Association.

Alongside five

The judge was elected alongside five others, Sanji Monageng (Botswana), Fumiko Saiga (Japan), Shahabuddeen Mohamed (Guyana), Tarfusser Cuno (Italy) and Van Den Wyngaert of Belgium.

When her father drove her to become a lawyer many years ago, the judge never dreamt that she would rise to such heights.

Her father, Ezekiel Othieno Josiah, who has since died, was a district commissioner in pre-independence Kenya, when DCs doubled up as magistrates.

Lady Justice Aluoch who is a mother of three, says law is a good career for girls, and has no regrets for choosing law.

She joined the Judiciary as a district magistrate II in 1974 and rose through the ranks until 1993 when she was appointed a judge of the High Court.

Recently she was promoted from the High Court to the Court of Appeal, the highest court in the land.