Rama Omonya

Rama Omonya is an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda and a founding partner of ABNO Advocates in Kampala, where he heads the international trade and investment group. His practice covers corporate governance advisory, property and natural resources, non-governmental organisation compliance, litigation and alternative dispute resolution. He advises investors on legal and political risk, and represents clients before the High Court and the Commercial Court.

Alongside legal practice, he has spent more than a decade in development and public policy work with national and international organisations. He served as Governance and Accountability Thematic Manager and as National Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at Oxfam in Uganda, where he led the development of the land governance subprogramme and established the organisation's extractives programme segment; as National Campaign Officer with Oxfam Great Britain, advising communities displaced from land in western Uganda; as Programme Advisor at the Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group, coordinating civil society engagement in Uganda's Article IV consultations with the International Monetary Fund and leading training for government officials in gender and equity budgeting; and as Just Economies and Inequality Lead Consultant on Oxfam International's Pan-African Programme. Earlier, at ActionAid International Uganda, he managed women's land rights programmes across the Lira, Oyam and Apac districts.

He is also a farmer and agribusiness practitioner, working as a business development advisor in the sector with over 15,000 farmers organised into groups across the Mityana, Lango and Acholi regions on organisation, training and market linkage. He has provided pro bono legal representation to persons held in pre-trial detention, and was among the advocates who established a pro bono group within the profession. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and a Bachelor of Laws, and works in English, Luo and Kiswahili.