Duncan Ojwang, LL.M. '11
Dean, Africa Nazarene University Law School
Duncan Ojwang doesn’t come from a family of lawyers, but his inspiration for becoming a member of the bar certainly springs from his loved ones. Ojwang was named for his grandfather who worked in a colonial court in Kenya as a prosecutor. While that may sound to American ears like a job open only to lawyers, that was not the case during colonial times. “It was the closest an African could get to work in the court, and everybody assumed he was a judge,” Ojwang said. “So when my mother named me after him, it was clear I had to pursue his dream.”
Ojwang traveled to Indiana for his undergraduate education; he received a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from IU South Bend. Ojwang moved to South Bend to be near his eldest brother who was attending a theology school nearby in Michigan. South Bend was good for Ojwang in another way; he met his wife of 17 years in a philosophy class they took together as undergraduate students. The couple has four children.
Ojwang received his law degree Southern Illinois University School of Law and he practiced law in Illinois, serving as a public defender in Jackson County, before enrolling in the Master of Laws program at IU McKinney. He completed his LL.M. in the International Human Rights Law track in 2011. Ojwang received his Ph.D. in Law and Policy at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2013. His goal after completing his education was “to teach and continue researching on how law can be used as a ‘guided missile’ to roll back historical injustices, including colonization and marginalization,” Ojwang said.
While at McKinney, Ojwang worked as an international human rights law intern as part of IU McKinney’s Program in International Human Rights Law. He interned with the Women’s Rights Initiative in Jinja, Uganda, as well as with the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret in Kenya. Together with Professor George Edwards and other IU McKinney law students, Ojwang also participated in the International Criminal Court review conference in Kampala, Uganda.
“I remember Professor Edwards coming all the way to Jinja, Uganda, to visit and supervise me!” Ojwang said. “It was so nice that he traveled so far to visit all of his interns throughout the world. We visited a small village among the Basoga where we spoke to the chief and his people on the importance of protecting women’s rights.”
In Kenya, Ojwang was part of the state delegation and worked as a researcher for the International Criminal Court case against Deputy President William Ruto, who faced crimes against humanity. He has published several articles, and presented major cases before the Africa Commission for Human Rights. Ojwang was named Dean of Africa Nazarene University School of Law, located in Nairobi in Kenya, in 2017.
Ojwang’s goal for his law school is to “produce international lawyers who are wired to operate in Africa through partnership with universities abroad that can offer courses in Kenya,” he said. “We teach law as a healing profession.”
