Madar (Nairobi) - The UN General Assembly and Security Council on Tuesday night, November 3, 2026, in New York elected five judges to the International Court of Justice, including Kenya's Phoebe Okowa, who secured a full nine-year term running from 2027 to 2036, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Okowa won 183 votes in the General Assembly and 13 in the Security Council, giving her the required absolute majority in both bodies. The other four judges elected are Dapo Akande of the United Kingdom, Francois Alabrune of France, Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud of Jordan and Rena Lee of Singapore. Their terms will run from February 6, 2027, to February 5, 2036, according to Kenya's Citizen Digital.
According to UN News, the other four judges were elected in the first round, while the fifth seat required two further rounds, with Sierra Leone, Ecuador and South Korea withdrawing their candidates; nine candidates had competed for the five seats, Citizen Digital reported. Kenya's foreign ministry thanked the three countries, saying their withdrawal helped avoid a prolonged process. Sierra Leone's mission to the UN said it had withdrawn the candidature of Prof. Charles Chernor Jalloh and backed Okowa "to keep Africa's seat on the Court. Africa first."
Okowa joined the court in November 2025, elected to complete the term of Somali judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, who resigned, which was due to end on February 5, 2027, becoming the first Kenyan to sit on the court. A professor of public international law at Queen Mary University of London, she was the first African woman to serve on the UN International Law Commission.
Kenyan President William Ruto congratulated her on her re-election in a message on X on Wednesday morning, calling it "a moment of great pride for Kenya". The Hague-based ICJ has 15 judges elected for nine-year terms, with a third renewed every three years; candidates need an absolute majority in both the General Assembly (97 of 193 votes) and the Security Council (8 of 15), which vote separately by secret ballot and without a veto.
