The Supreme Court’s demeaning and insulting dismissal of the presidential election petition evidence presented by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya flag bearer Raila Odinga’s lawyers as “hot-air”, “nonsense”, “red herring”, “wild goose chase”, and other epithets, may have deflated the enthusiasm that had been built up on the national political arena, but a heroine still emerged.
It is generally agreed that one of Raila’s star lawyers in the seasoned team that included veteran advocate and new Siaya Governor James Orengo, was none other than Julie Soweto.
Featuring in only her second high-profile presidential petition following her debut after the 2017 General Election, she got the public really excited and talking animatedly about her mercurial performance in the court. She spoke confidently in a polished English accent.
Who is Julie Soweto?
According to her Linkedin profile, Julie Soweto Awullo is the owner of Soweto and Company Advocates, which she founded in 2012. Before then, she had served for seven years as an associate with JAB Orengo Advocates.
There was a memorable video circulating on social media of her being hugged by Raila in appreciation of the good job he felt she and other members of the team had done in presenting their case. This was before the damning verdict was read by Supreme Court president and Chief Justice Martha Koome.
Though Julie is married, there has been no mention of who her husband is, and, surely, he must keep close to himself and out of the limelight.
She is the one who told the court about the suspected foreign interference by Venezuelans, especially the notorious Jose Camargo, in the August 9 presidential election. She revealed that a KIEMS kit used in Bungoma had also transmitted results from Nyeri, hundreds of kilometres away, and that a foreigner’s fingerprints had been captured on the Form 34As.
Jose Camargo
As she projected a form from the Gacharaigu Primary School polling station 2 in Kangema in Murang’a County that had been photographed with the name “Jose Camargo” appearing on the top left corner, Ms Soweto told the court that this was evidence of tampering that had been left behind “by God’s grace”.
In her further evidence challenging the presidential result in favour of UDA-Kenya Kwanza Alliance candidate William Ruto, she eloquently stated that some 4,463 votes were deducted from her client, Raila, the ODM party leader, and added to Ruto’s count .
She added: “We didn’t make this up. We were told we forged these documents. This is how the staging was happening. This is how the changes were happening.
Referring to Venezuelan Carmargo, she submitted: “This is the person who decided the President-elect of the country. It is on the IEBC portal; it is live. We were told the foreigners left before August 8…This is the person who was interfering with the forms.”
After capturing the nation’s imagination during the hearing of the petition, she posted on her official Twitter account the following message: “I appreciate the wide interest in the presidential petition, which shows we are all keenly looking after our country.”
Julie, who is 44 years old, stands 5 feet and 3 inches and weighs 68kg, is a prominent Kenyan lawyer, who has also studied and practised in South Africa.
She served as a law clerk/clerk to Justice Dikgang E. Moseneke, in the Constitutional Court of South Africa in Johannesburg from July 2004 to December 2004.
Kenya High School
The brilliant advocate is an alumna of Kenya High School in Nairobi. Julie studied at the University of Nairobi from 1996 to 2000, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree. She also holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (2002).
Julie, who was born and brought up in Kisumu, is a human rights defender, who will not be intimidated by the shabby treatment meted out to her team by Chief Justice Koome and the other six justices – Philomena Mwilu (Deputy CJ), Njoki Ndung’u, Mohamed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, and Isaac Lenaola). It has taken hard work and diligence to get to this level and achieve international recognition.
For advocate Julie, the controversy generated by the judgment, which has been roundly dismissed by some legal experts, including Governor Orengo, who saw more politics and less jurisprudence in it, is more limelight.
Julie Soweto will definitely continue to scale up the ladder of excellence in her legal practice, determined to enhance the delivery of justice in the country, the continent, and beyond.
