Former Deputy Chief Justice Laeticia Kikonyogo has died aged 77.
She passed on Thursday from Mulago hospital where she was rushed two days back when her condition deteriorated, Judicial spokesperson Vincent Emmy Mugabo confirmed succumbed to a heart attack on her way to the Mulago medical school at about 12.30 noon.
Kikonyogo was first went to Namulundu health centre in Kanjansi for first aid before they referred her to Mulago medical school.
“Yes, she died of heart complications on her way to Mulago medical school and as a judiciary we have lost a great person,” said Mr Solomon Muyita, the Senior Communications Officer at Uganda Judiciary (Courts of Judicature).
In 2008 while Deputy Chief Justice, Kikonyogo was sixth in the echelon of power. She was also the head of the court of appeal and to sack her would require a procedure as rigorous as that of the Chief Justice.
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.
In 1997, Mukasa-Kikonyogo was also appointed the first woman justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda and the first woman to be appointed Deputy Chief Justice.
She was also the head of the Court of Appeal and president of the Constitutional Court of Uganda in February 2001. Mukasa-Kikonyogo was the first African president of the International Association of Women Judges.
Pope Benedict XVI also appointed her as one of the two Ugandan dames to be the first ever women papal knights in the history of the Catholic Church not only in Uganda, but also in the whole of Africa.
May her soul RIP
