Human Rights lawyer Grace Wakio Kakai has been appointed the Deputy Registrar of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in Kenya.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Court) is a continental court established by African countries to protect human and people’s rights in Africa. It complements and reinforces the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Kakai’s appointment was announced at the Arusha, Tanzania-based court.
Kakai has over 20 years of experience as a human rights lawyer and public international law specialist working with non-governmental and international organisations and international courts.
Before her appointment, Kakai worked as a Principal Legal Officer at the court and rose to head the division.
Her official profile shows that she has been involved in the operationalisation of the Court and the Registry on its judicial and administrative functions through the promulgation of various texts, policies and guidelines.
She has also been involved in the Court’s outreach activities with various stakeholders at national, regional, continental and international levels.
Kakai holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Relations from Kenyatta University, Kenya.
She also holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights and
Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria, South Africa (2006). She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a Chevening Fellow.
Prior to working with the African Court, Kakai worked as an Expert on the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union in the African Union Commission’s Citizens and Diaspora Directorate. She also worked as a Legal Expert in the Interim Registry of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, pending the operationalisation of the Registry. This was for the period from January 2007 to October 2008.
Between 2001 and 2005, Kakai worked on research and advocacy programmes on human rights, the rule of law and access to justice with various civil society organisations in Kenya, including the Centre for Governance and Development, the Kenyan Section of the
International Commission of Jurists and the International Foundation for Election Systems-Kenya Programme. During this period, she also worked with the Secretariat of the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Branch Office in Nairobi. Kakai has a number of publications to her credit, including ‘’The African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council: An evaluation of its mandate in facilitating civil society participation in the African Union’’ (March 2012), ‘‘The role of continental and regional courts in peacebuilding through the judicial resolution of election-related disputes’’ published in the African Human Rights Yearbook Volume 4 (2020) and a book review on ‘‘The performance of Africa’s International Courts using litigation for political, legal and social change’’ published in AfronomicsLaw in March.
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