Effie Owuor

Effie Owuor (born 1943) is a Kenyan lawyer and judge who was the country's first female State Counsel, Magistrate, High Court Judge, and Court of Appeal Judge.

Early life and education Owuor was born in 1943 in Kakamega and attended Butere Girls High School and Alliance Girls High School. She graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1967, which was at the time the only university offering law degrees in East Africa.

Career Owuor became a State Counsel in the Attorney General's Chambers in 1967. In 1983, she was appointed alongside Cecil Miller and Chunilal Madan to the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate corruption allegations against former Attorney General Charles Njonjo.

Owuor was also appointed a goodwill ambassador to UNICEF. Owuor withdrew and the position on the bench was taken by fellow female Kenyan judge Joyce Aluoch. She has six children. and she herself was caught up in the Luo custom of widow inheritance when her second husband died. She said, "the Luo community treats widows like dirty people who have to be cleansed before they can integrate into the society once again. As the chairperson of a government task force that is reviewing the legal regime and how it affects women, it is humiliating to be harassed by men when I am still mourning my husband." She refused to be "inherited" by her husband's family.

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