Prof. Maria Nzomo is a prominent scholar and professor of International Relations and governance and Director of the Diplomacy Institute. She has contributed immensely to development of the study of diplomacy in Kenya. Professor Maria Nzomo holds the distinction of being the first Kenyan woman to attain a PhD in political science, which she earned in 1981 from Dalhousie University in Canada. She has over 30 years of teaching experience at the University of Nairobi, starting out as a Tutorial Fellow in 1979 and rising the ranks to become an associate professor of political economy and international studies in 1995. Between October 2003 and January 2009, she held several ambassadorial posts in southern Africa (Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe) and at the United Nations.    Read More

Patricia Kameri-Mbote is a Professor of Law and former Dean at the School of Law, University of Nairobi. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and was conferred the rank of Senior Counsel in 2012. She was a member of the Committee of Eminent Persons appointed by His Excellency the President of Kenya in February 2006 to advise the government on the way forward for the stalled constitution review process. She was also awarded an honorary degree in law by the University of Oslo (UiO) in 2017 for outstanding contribution to research through ground-breaking work cutting across established fields such as Women’s Law, Natural Resources Law, Human Rights and Law and Development. Kameri-Mbote earned her doctorate from Stanford University in 1999 specializing in property rights and environmental law.     Read More