Duma Boko
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Honourable Duma Boko MP |
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|---|---|
| Leader of the Opposition | |
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Assumed office November 2014 |
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Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington North |
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Assumed office November 2014 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
c. 1969 (age 47–48) Mahalapye |
| Nationality | Motswana |
| Political party | Umbrella for Democratic Change |
| Domestic partner | Kaone Mokganedi |
| Residence | Gaborone |
| Alma mater | Harvard Law School, University of Botswana |
| Profession | Lawyer, Academic, bureaucrat |
| Human rights activist, Botswana Law Society | |
Duma Gideon Boko is a Motswana statesman and politician. He is a lawyer by profession.
Growing up in a rural village where toys, television sets, and a family vehicle were a luxury that could engender envy among neighbours, owning such could catapult one to celebrity status. It was even a huge achievement if such a toy was a typewriter.
When he was growing up in the Xhosa One Ward in Mahalapye, Duma Boko was this boy. He was so brilliant, knowledgeable, and most importantly confident in whatever he set out to do. To add to that self-assurance was the fact that his father was working at a good paying job at the time – a lecturer at Madiba Brigades. He raised Duma and her sister Emma until his passing in 2004. As a Form Four student he almost embarrassed one teacher when he brought over 20 pages of a document in which he had written about Leon Trotsky.
In 1987 Boko relocated to Gaborone for his law studies at University of Botswana (UB). Already a firebrand, he was immediately elected into the UB Student Representative Council (SRC). Among his law classmates were High Court judges Michael Leburu, Key Dingake, Bengbame Sechele, Lot Moroka, and others who pursued careers outside law practice after school.After graduating in 1993, he went to further his studies at the prestigious Harvard University in the United States of America, before returning to teach Law at University of Botswana, simultaneously operating a law firm. Some of the judges incurred the wrath of Boko’s mighty pen in his column in the early 2000s in The Monitor when he accused them of being backward and not intellectually progressive. Boko was frustrated that academics at the university, and judges were not doing enough research work to make informed arguments, or judgments. Between 2005 and 2006 Boko was part of the legal team representing Basarwa who were challenging their relocation from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve(CKGR). The judgment that was passed on December 13, 2006, can best be described as a 50/50 outcome for government and Basarwa. But Boko surprised a packed High Court in a different case in 2007 when he was defending two men who were facing the death penalty. Michael Molefhe – a South African, and Brandon Sampson – from Gantsi were appearing before Justice Maruping Dibotelo for sentencing after a long trial that attracted the attention of the media
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Wikipedia