Born in 1940, the passion for law saw her pursue a law degree in a faraway land after all her attempts to attain one in Uganda failed when she was discouraged on grounds that law was a men’s course. This was between 1965 to 1968 at the Inner Temple and Council of Legal Education in London after a Bachelor’s degree and Masters in Literature from Makerere University and Oxford University respectively. This world day against attitudes and norms of her own society about her gender as a woman saw the retired Lady Justice become the first woman Judge in 1986 and later the first Deputy Chief Justice. The elevation didn’t come free of huddles, at very many occasions and in public places, Lady Justice Kikonyogo missed salutes because people wouldn’t think a woman would be a Judge and instead saluted men she was moving with. “When I came to the bench I was being driven to work in the morning and at the Clock Tower, we found a roadblock. The Policeman at the look when he looked into my car there was a young man a friend of ours. So the Policeman at the roadblock saluted the Policeman because he could not see any woman in the car. And then another time we went to the bank with my husband, the Policemen at the bank saluted my husband because they thought he was the Judge.”

Even when such a strong history of a woman who struggled to fit within a status of opportunities she had worked for, the first High Court Judge in the country and Activist for Human and Child Rights still commended women who contributed to the fight of women emancipation. “When I was appointed the first woman Judge I was one but now see the number we have, see what the women can do. We have achieved a lot as I said in education and other professions and other things. They can do what men can do given the opportunity.” Said, the Late Leticia Kikonyogo – Former Deputy Chief Justice.
She, however, noted that there was still more for the battle for women emancipation if one day in the future of time women would be looked at in the same regard as men. On access to justice for women in Ugandan in Courts, the lady Judge believed women were not discriminated against but they were limited by ignorance and affordability. “Another obstacle women face is ignorance. Because of ignorance, they are deprived of their rights. Take for example the succession, someone loses a husband and the relatives come and take away all the property from the home and then she doesn’t report to the Local Council or to the Police.”

Besides being the first woman Judge at the High Court and Supreme Court in the country, retired lady Justice Leticia Kikonyogo was also nominated and appointed as a Pope guard, achievements only attached to one’s strong faith in Catholicism. “To work, have self-confidence and so on and so forth. Be daring, don’t accept defeat easily, you say never give up in your heart. But first and foremost God has to come first.”