inBUSINESS Issue 12

KELLY =Jurist +VERVE x INTEGRITY
When a beautiful woman is a jurist on course to promote labour as a factor of production that should be
properly rewarded, and the same feminist can grow plants without soil, the future of society can only be bright,
writes MBAKI TJIYAPO
For the longest time we
have heard how a certain
Kewagamang was a pain in
the government’s side. Because
of the no-nonsense image
that precedes this name, we
assumed it was a man. And
then you meet the legend and are nonplussed
because before you stands a woman who is
as prepossessing as she is confident.
This one has the feline grace of a cat that
knows its prey too. And how to corner it
into submission before it can strike back.
A curious aspect is how this woman can
achieve this without sustaining so much as
a dent in her integrity. In some creatures,
a good amount of this ability is inherent,
although the skill can also be learnt with
training and honed with practice.
As much as survival can depend on such
skills because in the jungle that is justice
and the law, a small misstep can result in
a complete reversal of roles in which the
hunter becomes the hunted. This woman is
aware of this to a point where she can follow
her quarry by its scent and then strike.
As her adversaries – real or imagined -
will tell you, in the games of manoeuvre that
lawyers like to engage in, Kelly’s courtroom
cunning can be stealthy and therefore
difficult to predict. Otherwise where would
she be? Afterall, the thrust of her family
name, Kewagamang, raises the question of
to whom this compelling personage belongs.
A product of public education all the way
from primary school in her native Kanye to
UB in Gaborone, anyone would be forgiven
for mistaking the twang in the tone of Kelly
Kewagamang’s voice for a product of private
school education. Although she was initially
admitted to study the humanities, she
subsequently changed course to pursue law
because she believed the social arts were not
sufficiently challenging.
After graduating with a general law
degree in 2005, Kelly, as she is better known,
landed an opportunity at Lerumo Mogobe
Associates with whom she had spent a stint
as a student. It was while there that she made
the acquaintance of Tshiamo Rantao, a
friendship that she treasures to-date because
it led to the two strutting out to form
their own practice, Rantao Kewagamang
Attorneys, in July 2007.
This marked her first experience of
independence as a fully-fledged partner in
a firm that soon became a force to reckon
with.
This was at a time when starting a law
firm was daunting and many thought it
would never see the light of day. But driven
in part by the working relationship that
Kewagamang has with Rantao, today the
firm has a preeminence in the area of human
rights, especially on the labour front. With
three female and two male attorneys and a
preponderance of women in its employ, it is
also in front of others in matters of gender
and children’s rights.
In this progressive climate and rights
culture, criminal cases tend to be abjured.
But with assertive women everywhere,
doesn’t Rantao feel isolated? “Not at all,” says
Kewagamang.
“You should hear him
speak about women’s
issues. He works very
well with women and
is infact an advocate
of women’s rights.
But we are an equal
opportunity company
that does not set out
to exclude men.”
She explains that because the distaff
section of society is in a struggle for equality,
the firm has embraced its evolving prowomen
culture. To this end, in September
2013 Rantao Kewagamang Attorneys won
a case of “grave constitutional importance”
that empowered Batswana women by
entrenching their rights to land when the
www.inbusiness.co.bw | Issue 12 | 2017 23