Meet lawyer for post-election violence victims

By Evelyn Kwamboka

The first Kenyan woman to serve as a judge in the United Kingdom is now representing post-election violence victims at the International Criminal Court sitting at The Hague.

Lady Justice Sureta Chana gave chilling opening remarks at the ICC, saying her 327 clients had their lives, families, hopes and aspirations turned upside down due to the violence as she implored the court to grant them justice fro what they had gone through.

The Pre-Trial Chamber II appointed Chana as a common legal representative at The Hague for those who bore the brunt of violence that erupted after Kenyans voted peacefully on December 27, 2007.

The judge ruled that Chana would be allowed to attend all public hearings and to make a brief opening and closing statement in the cases against ‘The Hague Six’.

She may also be authorised by the court to attend camera or ex-parte hearings at the court.

Chana comes from a family of lawyers and has vast experience in international, criminal and human rights law.

Her father and uncle practiced in the same law firm — Bhandari & Bhandari Advocates — where she also started off.

"I never thought of doing anything other than practice as a lawyer. Dad was influential in my life and he taught us to think independently," she says.

Chana who comes from a family of seven (six girls and one boy), says that unlike other people who only educated boys, her father and mother decided to give all their six daughters the best education.

"When you educate a woman, you will never leave her at the mercy of anybody else. She becomes economically independent," says the University of Nairobi-educated lawyer.

Gave advice

While studying law at the University of Nairobi, Chana met Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch, now serving at ICC, and Court of Appeal judge Alnashir Visram.

She got married after her first degree and moved to Boston in the US.

She worked there briefly before going for her Masters degree in Comparative Law at George Washington University, Washington DC in 1975.

She worked at the Attorney General’s Chamber as a Senior State Counsel and Principal State Counsel.

As a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, Chana also conducted prosecutions and criminal appeals, extradition proceedings, and courts martial, advised on major criminal matters and legislation, and gave training on criminal law issues to army and police.

In 1987, she established her legal practice in Nairobi, where she had broad-based practice which encompassed administrative, commercial, conveyance, criminal and family laws, including issues of international law and trade.

Just like her mother, Chana wanted the best education for her daughters and this made her work harder to achieve the goal.

In March 1999, her career started to shine in the international world.

She joined the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia as a trial attorney.

"It gave me an opportunity to send my children to universities in UK and Canada because I could not afford with the Kenyan salary. All my decisions in life have been dictated by the interest of my children," she says.

Here, she undertook a wide range of legal duties in relation to the investigation and prosecution of cases, including appearing as counsel for the prosecution in proceedings before the Tribunal.

She worked on the Yugoslavian case until 2006 when she went to serve as a legal consultant for the Women’s Initiative for Gender Justice at The Hague.

Her duties included representing the women’s organisation in an application to appear as amicus curiae before the ICC in the Thomas Lubanga (former DRC warlord) case.

Affected individuals

In December the same year, she moved to the UK where she was appointed a judge to handle matters touching on immigration and asylum.

Chana is currently serving as a deputy judge of the Upper Tribunal where she hears and determines appeals against decisions of the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).

The Tribunal hears and decides appeals by affected individuals against immigration and asylum decisions of the United Kingdom Home Secretary or immigration officials.

Cases handled by this court also concern the interpretation and application of United Kingdom immigration legislation and policies, the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the European Convention on Human Rights, and European instruments and legislation concerning the movement of persons within the European Union and European Free Trade Association.

In the struggle for multi-party democracy in Kenya, Chana was among top lawyers who were actively involved in the process.

Others include the late Michael Wamalwa, Lands Minister James Orengo and Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara.

"It was a struggle and we succeeded. People did not understand politics at that time and all were agitating for the big seat," she says.