Women Chief Justices in Africa: why are they under threat?
VERY, very few women in Africa hold the position of Chief Justice or deputy Chief Justice. On the last count, just five women hold these posts in the southern and east African countries we most regularly write about. And yet two of these five women are under threat of prosecution or impeachment, while a third who has been facing an impeachment tribunal emerged unscathed last week. Against this background, the story of the inquiry into the Chief Justice of Seychelles, Mathilda Twomey, makes sober reading for the general public.
WOMEN in African’s top judicial positions will have been watching the case of their colleague, the Chief Justice of Seychelles, Mathilda Twomey, with more than keen interest. It is a remarkable fact that, of the southern and east African countries whose decisions we have been writing about recently, women hold top office in just a tiny number of countries. And yet most of these already few women are under scrutiny, facing threat of impeachment or prosecution.
