Dow: BCP’s stellar performer, woman of many firsts
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday February 9, 2026 13:08
Born 67 years ago in Mochudi, Kgatleng, just a few kilometres east of the capital city Gaborone, Dow is a prominent figure who duly fits the description of an indefatigable fighter. She had fought so many battles: Won some and lost some. Her life journey reflects a story of a woman who did not simply land opportunities on a silver platter just because she is a woman deserving favours from the male-dominated politics. Instead, she has vigorously and briskly fought her way up the ladder. Perhaps, due to her zing, stature and price, she caught the eyes of two former State presidents, who had appointed her as a Specially Elected Member of Parliament (SEMP); Ian Khama (2014) and Mokgweetsi Masisi (2019) respectively. Dow is a woman of many firsts, both as a lawyer and a politician.
She made history as the first female judge of the High Court of Botswana and has been a strong advocate for women’s rights and children’s welfare. Aside from her political activism, Dow has been involved in various initiatives promoting human rights and social justice. She is respected both in Botswana and internationally for her work on issues such as HIV/AIDS, education and women’s empowerment.
She has made significant contributions to the National Assembly of Botswana since 2014, initially as a Specially Elected MP and later winning a seat in the Kgatleng West in 2024.
Some of her notable contributions include advocating for women’s rights, promoting education, supporting marginalised groups, authoring impactful literature and others.
Dow has made major motions in the National Assembly, including the establishment of peace desks, systemic reductions in GBV, constitutional reforms, and consultation on national issues, amongst others. Her parliamentary interventions focus on promoting accountability, transparency and women’s rights.
Last year, in her element, Dow strongly criticised the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government for failing to consult on important issues, including the Citizenship by Investment Programme and the creation of a new city in Kgalagadi. She argued that major policy shifts were announced without Parliament’s input and consultation with Batswana, calling it a departure from the norm.
In Parliament, where she has earned the esteem title of ‘Mother of the House’, some of her colleagues say she has brought numerous benefits as an MP in her third term. She brings expertise as a lawyer, independence, passionate leadership and human rights defender. Dow is a robust debater who encourages progressive reforms, accountability and others.
“Overall, Dow’s presence in Parliament enriches the democratic process and benefits Botswana’s development,” said a former party colleague in the BDP who preferred anonymity.
BCP Opposition Whip in Parliament and Maun West MP, Caterpillar Hikuama remembers that Dow joined the BCP in 2023. He says Dow’s performance in the 2024 General Election was a master class in political resilience and individual brand power.
“Winning Kgatleng West for the BCP was particularly significant because she was running in a region where the party didn’t have the deep-rooted organisational machinery that it enjoys in its strongholds like Bobirwa, Tswapong, and North West, Okavango or Chobe regions,” observed Hikuama.
To him, Dow’s victory was a feat of resourcefulness, beating the UDC and the BDP, where the national political landscape was dominated by the UDC’s national momentum and the BDP’s incumbent resources. “Dow managed to get a victory for the BCP, something that we shouldn’t take for granted. Mind you, she secured the parliamentary seat despite the BCP having only a single councillor in the constituency.”
Hikuama added that, usually, in the First-Past-The-Post system, a parliamentary candidate relies heavily on a strong ground game from a fleet of local councillors.
He added, “Winning with such minimal local support indicates that voters were specifically choosing Unity Dow the person, rather than just the party ticket. To me, that is a boost for the BCP. The first female BCP candidate to win in the country’s General Election. Out of 15 seats won by the BCP, she is the only female MP”.
To him, the case of Dow places her in a unique position of influence within the party’s caucus, serving as a vital perspective on gender and social justice in a Parliament that still struggles with female representation.
“She is indeed a pillar of strength both in the BCP and Parliament of Botswana. Her victory proved that a candidate with high integrity and a proven national record could transcend party limitations. That is a plus for the BCP family,” he added.
A public servant who previously served under Dow had this to say about her: “I think she has had a distinguished and illustrious career in the legal environment, both in private practice and public service as a High Court Judge. She would be remembered for presiding together with others in the marathon CKGR matter in which the Basarwa were fighting their right to live in their ancestral land”. However, the officer, who preferred anonymity, added that as a politician and minister of State, “I think her performance was average. She did not fare well as a Minister of Education and Skills Development. Just like her predecessors, she presided over a sector that continued to experience a downward trend in student achievement levels”.
In 2014, she decided to enter politics and joined the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). She ran in the 2014 General Election for the then Mochudi West constituency but lost. On 28 October 2014, Dow was nominated, along with four other candidates, by former president Khama as a SEMP. She and fellow SEMPs, Kenneth Matambo, Kitso Mokaila, and Eric Molale, were appointed to the cabinet. First, she came in as Assistant Minister of Education, and a few months down, in February 2015, Dow stepped up and became the Minister of Education and Skills Development. During her time in the ministry, Dow established an exchange programme, where teachers from the Seychelles received training in Botswana and Batswana teachers were seconded to the Island nation to help alleviate teacher shortage and strengthen the profession.
After Khama stepped down as president in March 2018, his successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, shifted Dow to the post of Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development. In two months, however, on 20 June 2018, in a Cabinet reshuffle, Dow was named Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, swapping her seat in Infrastructure and Housing with Vincent Seretse.
Masisi won the presidency in the 2019 General Election and reconfirmed Dow as Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation for the 12th Parliament of Botswana. In August 2020, Dow relinquished her ministry and was replaced by Dr Lemogang Kwape in a Cabinet reshuffle. Dow said of the move, “As a minister, you speak predominantly about your portfolio. But the backbench gives you the liberty to interrogate a wide variety of issues of national interest. The only limitation is my party’s position on a given subject”.
Dow, an outspoken legislator currently a Botswana Congress Party (BCP) legislator for Kgatleng West, earned a law degree in 1983 from the University of Botswana and Swaziland, though her studies were completed in Swaziland and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as Botswana had no law school at the time.
After her graduation, Dow opened the first all-woman law firm in Botswana and in 1997 became the first woman to be appointed as a judge to the country’s High Court.
In 1990, Dow filed suit in the High Court of Botswana to challenge the Nationality law of Botswana. Under the 1984 Citizenship Act, only children born out of wedlock with foreign fathers could derive nationality through their mothers. As two of her three children with Peter Dow were born after their marriage, they were not considered Batswana. Journals show that fearing that were her husband’s residency permit, expiring in 1992, not renewed, her family could be forced to move or split up, Dow initiated the widely quoted Unity Dow v Attorney-General lawsuit, arguing that the Citizenship Law was discriminatory and contravened her right to avoid demeaning and inhumane punishment. The court found in favour of Dow, concurring that the law impacted her free choice of whom to marry, could force her to be separated from her family if her husband and children’s residency permits were not renewed, and was discriminatory.
At the time, records reflect that Dow had taken a two-year sabbatical from her law practice in 1991 for the case. During that time, together with other women, she co-founded the Baobob Primary School in Gaborone and the AIDS Action Trust. Dow served as a coordinator for Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) from 1992 to 1994, while the appeal of her case was pending. During the appeal, Attorney General v Unity Dow, the State argued that discrimination against women was protected by the constitutional provisions to preserve the traditional customs of Botswana, which was a patrilineal society.
As a result of the landmark ruling in 1995, the Citizenship Act was amended to remove gender disparity in the acquisition of nationality in Botswana. The ruling became the basis for women’s groups throughout Africa to press for change in their nationality laws and eliminate gender disparities, resulting in nearly half of Africa’s countries amending legislation on nationality by 2010.
Dow was appointed as a judge to the High Court of Botswana and began serving the court in January 1998. Her appointment marked the first time a woman had been appointed to serve as a judge on the High Court.
In 2004, Dow served as part of a United Nations mission, as a commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists. In 2006, she was elected to serve on the executive committee of the International Commission of Jurists with six returning commissioners and three new members, including herself, Vojin Dimitrijević of Serbia and Raji Sourani of Palestine. She was re-elected to the Commission in 2009.
Dow will always be remembered as a presiding judge, along with Maruping Dibotelo and Mphaphi Phumaphi, in a contentious issue of the Roy Sesana and Others v. the Government of Botswana case brought to the High Court in 2002 by the Basarwa people concerning their removal from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
Law reports indicate that Sesana and Keiwa Setlhobogwa brought the case on behalf of 241 other litigants when the Government of Botswana terminated the water supply in the reserve, refused to provide health services and transport for school children, stopped food distribution to orphans and the poor, and attempted the forced removal of the Basarwa from their settlements. They amended their case to include the refusal of the Department of Wildlife and National Parks to permit them to enter the reserve without a permit or issue special game licences to them.
After a four-year hearing, in 2006, Dow found in Basarwa’s favour, concluding that termination of services and forced relocation of the Basarwa represented an infringement of their constitutionally protected right to life.
She ordered that services be restored and that damages should be paid to those who had been relocated and had no wish to return. On the issue of game licences, all three justices concurred that they had been unlawfully withheld, as although the Department of Wildlife was not obligated to issue permits, they had traditionally done so; withholding them while at the same time stopping rations impacted the Basarwa peoples’ ability to sustain themselves.
She retired from the bench in April 2009 to lecture at the Washington and Lee University School of Law in Lexington, Virginia and the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, prior to serving as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School in New York City. Her resume reflects that in February 2010, Dow founded the legal firm Dow & Associates, and that same month was sworn in by the Kenyan President as one of the justices on the Interim Independent Constitutional Dispute Resolution Court to help implement Kenya’s new Constitution. In 2011, she was elected as chair of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists.
As a human rights activist, at some stage when it was not fashionable, she represented the human rights organisation LEGaBiBo (Lesbians, Gays & Bisexuals of Botswana) in their case to register their organisation with the Department of Civil and National Registration.
The organisation had been refused registration by both the director of the department and Edwin Batshu, the then Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, on the grounds that homosexual acts were illegal in the country.
Dow argued that refusing to register the organisation violated the right of free association and advised that the case was not about the right to engage in sexual acts, but whether the members could gather and share their information collectively. In 2014, Justice Terrence Rannowane of the High Court ruled that refusing to register the group and allow them to assemble was in violation of the Constitution, Sections 3, 12, and 13, which grant the right to freedom of expression, freedom of association, and freedom of assembly, respectively.