Abdullahi Abdi is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Northern Aid, a Non-Governmental Organisation that is working with the pastoralist communities of Kenya. He has been instrumental in fighting for the rights of the minorities, particularly the marginalised in the northern and the Coastal regions of Kenya. He has been actively involved in the struggle for change in country since the late 80s, and has been participating in interfaith groups for reforms in Kenya. He was a member the Steering Committee of the Ufungamano Religious group that actively opposed the partisan Constitution Review Commission in late 90s. He is the Chairman of Consortium for the Empowerment and Development of the Marginalised Communities (CEDMAC ), a group that lobbies for the protection of the rights and progress of minorities.

He is the Chairman of National Muslim Leaders Forum (NAMLEF) which brings together the leadership of 67 Muslim organisations in Kenya. He is also a Goodwill Ambassador of Peace for the National Cohesion and Integrity Commission. He is a Member of the Board of Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK), an interfaith group that promotes peace and interaction within the various religious groups in the country. In the past, he has participated and chaireda number of Boards and organisations. These include; Member – Culture of Peace Network (CPN) UNESCO, Member – National Council of NGOs, Kenyan Member – International Federation of Religion and World Peace, Board Director – NGO Coordination Bureau, Member – Cultural & Health Grant Programme, Ford Foundation/PATH, Trustee – RAINBO U.K., Member – National Water Sector Committee (Kenya) WESCOORD, Chairman – National Halal Society of Kenya, Member – Reference Group – Constitution of Kenya, Committee of Experts, Chairman – National Governing Council APRM, NEPAD, Managing Director – Zonal Freights Limited, Range Management Educationist – UNDP/FAO Range Management Project.

Kawive Wambua is an educationist, a literary scholar and a writer. He is currently the Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Inuka Trust and the immediate former Makueni county executive committee member (CEC) for devolution and public service. While at the county government of Makueni, Kawive served as the CEC Department of Roads, Transport, Infrastructure and Energy, CEC Department of Devolution and Public Service, CEC Department of Education and Civic Education. During his tenure at the Makueni County Government, Kawive developed and operationalised the Citizen’s Participation framework.

Kawive has been in the civil society since 2004 and has played an important role in the development, networking as well as expansion of the civil society space in Kenya. This he did while he was the Chief Executive Officer at the Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO), as well as the Executive Officer at the Institute of Performing Arts (IPAL).

Ikal Angelei holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Nairobi and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is the Executive Director of Friends of Lake Turkana (FoLT) and has extensive experience working on environmental and natural resource governance and advocacy. Ikal Angelei is also skilled in community mobilization and advocacy. In 2012 she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in particular for her voicing of environmental implications of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam, speaking on behalf of Kenyan indigenous communities.

Oliver Waindi joined Uraia Trust as Executive Director in March 2022. He has over 23 years of working experience in progressively senior management roles with leading international organizations. His experience has been in community and youth development; civic education; health, humanitarian; education, and food security programs.

He is pursuing a Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy (University of Nairobi); holds a master’s degree in International Relations (University of Nairobi); a BA (Kenyatta University); Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (College of Professional Management, Liverpool); Diploma in Business Management (Kenya Institute of Management) and advanced certificates in French and in Project Management.

Oliver’s interests include sports. He is a former boxer with Kenya’s national team.

Professor Miriam K. Were is a Kenyan Medical Doctor and a Public Health advocate, an academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Services. She started with a degree in Natural Sciences, then a postgraduate Diploma in Education. Later she studied Medicine at the University of Nairobi at which she later joined the staff. She rose through the ranks to become head of the Department of Community Medicine at Nairobi’s School of Medicine.

Professor Were studied at Johns Hopkins University where she graduated in 1981 with a doctorate in Public Health in, Health Planning and Management. She has applied this training and academic background to programs focused on community-based empowerment. Her work aims to help others move towards implementing creative, effective, and self-sustaining programs. Her focus has been on empowering people in their communities towards improving the quality of their lives.

Josphat Mwaura is the Chief Executive Officer of KPMG East Africa and a member of the Board of KPMG Africa Limited. As the CEO of KPMG East Africa, he provides strategic leadership, oversight and accountability and represents the firm in the market place. As a member of the KPMG Africa Board, he is part of a team that runs KPMG Africa as an integrated firm delivering services seamlessly across the continent.

Josphat Mwaurais a recognised business leader and management consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business strategy, performance management and public sector transformation. He has been the lead consultant in Government transformation and institutional development projects in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, including the set up and capacity building in devolved governments. He was a member of a team that developed Scenarios for Kenya published in 2000 as “Kenya at the crossroads: Scenarios for our Future”. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of Nairobi North and a Trustee of Palmhouse Foundation, an education trust that finances the secondary education of deserving students and mentors them through life to enable them to transform their lives.

Josphat Mwaura is a founder member of the East Africa Business Summit (EABS) and served as the Chair of the Convenors in 2011. The purpose of EABS is to provide a forum for engagement between the region’s top business minds and thought leaders on key challenges in order to catalyse a true economic transformation of East Africa. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA – K) and member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPA – K). He also holds a Certificate in Macroeconomic Policy and Management from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Prof. Collins Odote is a Lawyer with a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Law from the University of Nairobi. He joined the University of Nairobi as a tutorial fellow in May 2010 but had taught before then on a part time basis at the Institute for Diplomacy and International Studies of the University of Nairobi.

Since June 2011, he has taught at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Environmental Law and Policy (CASELAP) as a lecturer and also serviced the School of Law, University of Nairobi. He has also been supervising both LLM students as well as PhD students and mentoring the same.

Prior to joining the University, he had worked with and for a number of governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) developing particular competencies in legal research, project cycle management, process consulting, evaluations, election related work, environment and natural resource management work, capacity strengthening and training.   He is also an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Dr Collins Odote has published numerous books by himself as well as in partnership with other authors.

Dr. Mshai Mwangola, of the African Leadership Centre, Nairobi, is a performance scholar who is also an oraturist, actor, director and storyteller. She holds a doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, Evanston (USA); a Masters of Creative Arts from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne (Australia); and a Bachelor of Education from Kenyatta University, Nairobi (Kenya). Her pedagogy, research and creative work is grounded in understanding performance as both the process and product of meaning-making, an understanding she also carries into her facilitation of diverse kinds of intellectual and public forums.