The race for a seat at the International Criminal Court is heating up, and Kenya is not playing small.
While world leaders were gathered in Nairobi for the Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted by Kenya and France, President William Ruto got straight to business. He used the high-profile event to personally campaign for Lady Justice Njoki Ndugu’u, Kenya’s candidate for a judge position at the ICC.
On Sunday evening at State House Nairobi, President Ruto introduced Justice Njoki to French President Emmanuel Macron. But he did not stop there. He also made sure she met three other African heads of state: Côte d’Ivoire’s Alassane Ouattara, Liberia’s Joseph Boakai, and Sierra Leone’s Julius Maada Bio.
The message in every room was the same. Kenya believes its candidate is not just qualified but truly exceptional.
And the facts strongly support that claim.
Justice Njoki Ndugu’u was one of the founding judges of Kenya’s Supreme Court back in 2011. For more than ten years, she helped shape the country’s highest legal decisions. She is the main person behind Kenya’s Sexual Offences Act, a powerful law that changed how survivors of gender-based violence are protected.
She also played a key role in building the Maputo Protocol. That is the African Union’s landmark treaty on women’s rights, which has now been adopted by 54 nations.
For her entire career, Justice Njoki has focused on delivering justice for the most vulnerable people in society. Now she wants to do that same work on the world’s biggest stage.
France and Sierra Leone are among the 125 countries that have signed the Rome Statute and have their own sitting judges at the ICC. That makes their support very valuable.
The engagements are still going on. The summit in Nairobi has brought a rare gathering of powerful decision-makers to one place. And Kenya is treating every single hour as campaign time.
