Prior to her appointment to the Supreme court, she served as a
lecturer at the Faculty of Law at
Makerere University. Besides lecturing at Makerere, she served as vice chairperson of the Association of Uganda Women Lawyers, which operated a legal aid clinic. In 1993, she was selected by the Leadership & Advocacy for Women in Africa Program to do a Master of Arts on Women's Rights at
Georgetown University Law Center. The
East African Journal on Peace & Human Rights published her thesis, "Changing the Terms of the Debate to Resolve the Polygamy Question in Africa." She served as board member of the
Uganda AIDS Commission and a co-founder of the Strategic Litigation Coalition. In April 2013 she was appointed the chair of the
East African Judicial Committee. In September 2013 Esther Kisaakye was elected as the new president of the
National Association of Women Judges in Uganda. however there was controversy when she accused the Chief Justice Owiny Dollo of confiscating her file with a minority ruling. In September 2023, the
Daily Monitor reported that Justice Kisaakye, then aged 63, had written to president
Yoweri Museveni, the "appointing authority", requesting early retirement, 7 years before attaining the mandatory retirement age of 70, for a Uganda Supreme Court justice. ==Books Authored==