Laeticia Mukasa-Kikonyogo, 77, Uganda’s first female deputy chief justice is dead.
Kikonyogo passed on today at Mulago hospital due to complications related to a stroke.
In a short statement issued yesterday evening, the judiciary wrote:”We regret to announce the passing of the former Deputy Chief Justice, Laetitia Kikonyogo at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
Further details will be communicated in due course.”
In a profile of her done by The New Vision in January 2013, Kikonyogo was described as a woman of many “firsts.”
She was the first Ugandan woman magistrate Grade I (1971-1973), the first woman Chief Magistrate (1973-1986), the first woman to be appointed High Court judge (1986) and sat on the Court of Appeal to hear criminal appeals.
She was also the first woman to be appointed Deputy Chief Justice.
Mukasa-Kikonyogo went to Busuubizi Girls’ Primary School (1948-1952), Trinity College, Nabbingo in ‘O’ Level (1953-1958), King’s College, Budo in ‘A’ Level (1959-1960) before joining Makerere University where she graduated with B.A London certificate (1964-1968).
She also studied at Somerville College Oxford for a post graduate diploma in Social Anthropology (1964-1965) and at the Inner Temple and Council of Legal Education – London for a Bar course and Barrister at Law degree (1965-1968).