MEET YOUR HERO.
PRESIDENT DUMA GIDEON BOKO.
UDC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BOTSWANA.
Duma Gideon Boko is a Botswana politician. He is a lawyer and jurist. He is the president of the main opposition party in Botswana and Botswana National Front (BNF).
Duma Boko attained the presidency of the BNF in 2010. He led the creation of the Umbrella for Democratic Change, an alliance of the main opposition parties in Botswana. He ran as the alliance’s president in Botswana’s elections in 2014 and 2019.
His father worked as a lecturer at Madiba Brigades. Duma’s father died in 2004, after raising Duma and his sister Emma.
In 1987 Boko studied law at University of Botswana (UB). He was elected to the Student Representative Council (SRC). Among his law classmates were High Court judges Michael Leburu, Key Dingake, Bengbame Sechele and Lot Moroka. After graduating, in 1993, he furthered his studies at Harvard Law School.
He returned to teach Law at UB from 1993-2003, while operating a law firm on the side. In the early 2000s Boko wrote a column in The Monitor newspaper in which he claimed that judges were not intellectually progressive. He expressed frustration that academics and judges were not doing enough research to make informed 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 was a 50/50 outcome for both sides. In 2007 Boko defended two men facing the death penalty, Michael Molefhe and Brandon Sampson.
He was a member of the Law Society of Botswana (2006-2007). He was a member of the Board of Governors of Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV-Aids. He was a member of the Boards of Directors of several local Companies.
Boko became the leader of the Botswana National Front (BNF) in 2010. He inherited a party that was in decline under the leadership of Otsweletse Moupo.
The BNF came together with the newly formed Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD), a splinter of the Botswana Democratic Party, and the Botswana Peoples Party to form the Umbrella for Democratic Change.
In the 2014 general elections, Duma Boko led UDC to a narrow win of the State House. UDC was the second largest party to win seats. Boko became the leader of the Opposition.