Hon. Rosemary Onkoba, IAWJ Rising Leader

Hon. Rosemary Kemunto Onkoba is a Magistrate from Kenya. She adjudicates criminal law matters, civil law, contract law, tort law, probate cases, children’s cases, land matters, employment and labour related claims, traffic cases among others. Prior to her judicial career, Hon. Onkoba spent two years at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a Prosecution Counsel. She has also worked in private and corporate legal practice.

Hon. Onkoba is stationed at Eldoret Law Courts where she has been appointed as the Deputy Registrar High Court and Court Annexed Mediation. She is the treasurer of the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA) – North Rift Region. She is an IAWJ Rising Leader Fellow.

Hon. Onkoba has been actively involved in reducing case backlog in particular children’s cases by advocating referral of all filed children’s cases to Court Annexed Mediation. This has greatly led to faster and higher settlement rate of children cases as well as maintenance of good relationship between the disputants. She has also participated in looking into the welfare of inmates through prison visits. She is interested in the welfare of women inmates and the children accompanying them to prison. It is during the prison visits that she noted that minors accompanying their incarcerated mothers were invisible victims of circumstances and something needed to be done to safeguard their rights. She has organized a plea-bargaining exercise that has seen speedy conclusion of criminal cases involving mothers in custody.

Hon. Onkoba has interest on rights of vulnerable groups especially children and women. She aspires to have talks with children and women in order to sensitize them on gender equality and human rights issues. She also intends to publish legal articles on human rights and inclusive justice in order to contribute to jurisprudence. Hon. Onkoba looks forward to learning and building networks with IAWJ members. She hopes to rise up the judicial ladder to the position of judge.