Judy Adoko – A Beacon of Integrity

Judy Adoko has passed on – a Beacon of Integrity has been switched off before us.
At this time when integrity is a rare commodity in our country, this is a great loss.

I was blessed to work frequently with Judy Adoko over the last decade of her struggle to defend and promote land rights under customary tenure for the vulnerable people. Working with Judy, I was greatly inspired by her integrity manifested in her unwavering commitment to the cause, her thorough accountability and clean management, her strict respect for time and her dedication to reading.

The key principle and inner driving force of Judy’s work was integrity, that is, doing things right as they should be done, whether someone is looking or not. She cherished integrity and demanded it from all those who worked with her. That was, to a great extent, the reason for the high turn over in her NGO Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU).

Commitment to the cause: Judy’s integrity was manifested in her commitment to the cause of defending and promoting land rights under customary tenure. While some national and local NGOs would easily be swayed from their cause by the attraction of donor money, Judy would not be attracted by money to divert from her cause.

Accountability: Judy’s integrity was manifested also in the way she made sure that money received for LEMU work was always strictly used for the intended purpose and produced high value for money. She maintained for herself total accountability in the use of every shilling that she handled for work and demanded the same high level of accountability for resources from all those who worked with her. This may be another reason for the high staff turn over in LEMU.

Respect for and optimal use of Time: Apart from thorough accountability for money, Judy’s integrity was manifested also in her respect for and optimal use of time. She linked accountability for time to accountability for money, recognising that she was paid for the time she put into the work and the value of the product of that time. She strived hard to make those she worked with also understand this and use their work time to the maximum advantage.

Dedication to Reading: Judy’s integrity was manifested also in her commitment to reading what she needed to read for the good of her work and her personal development. In a country where many officials and leaders sign without reading documents that seriously commit the country to great costs and supervisors shelve field reports for months without looking at them, Judy would carefully read every page of documents of her work and all correspondence and reports from her field staff, often going late into the night to ensure her response is timely. One of the things that upset Judy most was to find that some of the staff she worked with had not read the basic documents of their work. She considered it lack of integrity for them to want to be paid for work that they did not take the trouble to understand. Moreover, she felt sorry for them for not taking the opportunity to read and develop themselves.

Christian: Judy Adoko was a Christian of integrity. As she goes to her well-deserved eternal rest Uganda should hope and pray that her integrity has rubbed off on many Ugandans that worked and associated with her.

Anthony Okech