MOGADISHU (KAAB TV) – A Kenyan legal academic, Phoebe Nyawade Okowa, has been elected on Wednesday, 12 November 2025, as a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), filling the vacancy left by Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia, who resigned effective 30 September 2025.
Okowa will hold the office for the remainder of Judge Yusuf’s term, which ends on 5 February 2027.
She is a Kenyan lawyer and professor of public international law at Queen Mary University of London, and since 2023 has served as a member of the United Nations International Law Commission.
Under the ICJ’s Statute, judges are elected by secret ballot in both the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly, voting concurrently but separately, each candidate needing an absolute majority in both bodies.
In this election, four candidates competed for the seat; Okowa secured three rounds of voting in the Security Council and four rounds in the General Assembly to win.
The ICJ, based in The Hague, consists of 15 judges, each elected for a nine-year term and eligible for re-election. Should a judge die or resign mid-term, a special election is held to fill the remainder of the term.
Judges come from 15 different countries, and the bench is designed to represent the major legal systems and forms of civilization of the world.
Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, a Somali national, previously served as President of the ICJ from February 2018 to February 2021.