Quick Facts
Biography
Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza is a Ugandan lawyer and judge, who has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda, since 2015.
Background and education
She was born in present-day Iganga District in 1961. She studied law at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws. She also holds a Diploma in Legal Practice, awarded by the Law Development Centre, also in Kampala.
Her Master of Laws in commercial law, was obtained from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. She also has a Doctor of Philosophy in law, obtained from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Career
Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza served as a lecturer then associate professor and then professor of law at Makerere University. Following that, she was promoted to the rank of Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for academic affairs at the institution. For a period of six months, from April 2009 until October 2009 she served as the Acting Vice Chancellor of Makerere University. In 2013, she was appointed to the Uganda Court of Appeal, serving in that capacity until 2015, when she was appointed to the Supreme Court.
Justice Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza was one of the justices of the Constitutional Court, who ruled in a 4 to 1 majority, that "there is no single provision in the Constitution that provides for the re-appointment of a retired Chief Justice". She wrote the majority opinion in that ruling. That court's ruling
made Justice Benjamin Odoki ineligible to return as Chief Justice, since he had attained the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Other considerations
She is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences and an alumnus of the International Women’s Leadership Forum. Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza has been married to Paul Ekirikubinza, a civil engineer for over 20 years and together are the parents of three sons.