“She has been a strong person. She has never had any other medical condition apart from her illness and we had all gotten used to that. We are surprised she is gone now because we all thought she would out live us. Her father lived up to 100.”
According to the husband, Justice Kikonyogo has been sick for more than five years now and has been under constant surveillance and treatment.
She has been suffering from Perkinson’s disease, disease that affects the brain leading to constant shaking. Judiciary spokesperson, Solomon Muyita says the the former deputy chief justice has left the institution when she was still needed.
The deceased has held various positions of responsibility in both the Catholic Church and the Judiciary. She was the first Uganda woman magistrate Grade I in 1971-1973; the first woman Chief Magistrate between 1973 and 1986; the first woman to be appointed High court judge in 1986 and also sat on the Court of Appeal.
She was later appointed the first woman Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda. In the Catholic Church, she was appointed as a Papal Dame by Pope Benedict XVI. She was one of the first ever women papal knights in the history of the Catholic Church in Africa.
Born on September 2, 1940, Kikonyogo went to Busuubizi Girls’ primary school, Trinity College Nabbingo and Kings College Buddo. She joined Makerere University in 1964 where she graduated with a B.A Certificate.
In 1965, she graduated with a post graduate Diploma in Social Anthropology at the Somerville College, Oxford. She later studied for a law degree at the Inner Temple and Council of Legal Education, London between 1965-1968.