Mary Wambui Kanyi holds a BA in Religious Studies and Anthropology from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN, USA, Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Social Cultural Anthropology from Ball State University, IN, USA. She is currently pursuing her PhD in women’s leadership at the University of Nairobi – African Women Studies Centre (AWSC). She is also a gender expert and specializes in mainstreaming gender and women in development policies and programmes and gender responsive policy analysis.

Kanyi joined the women’s movement in 1998 just after the defeat of Hon Phoebe Asiyo’s affirmative action motion. This was a moment when Kenyan women were determined to push for the critical mass women’s representation in decision making institutions, particularly the national assembly.  She has worked as a Programmes and Administration Manager at the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development (CCGD), CEO of the Women’s Political Alliance – Kenya (WPA-K) and CEO for Bridge Africa at the height of the constitutional reforms. She is a former delegate to the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) at the Bomas of Kenya and a Constitution of Kenya Review Commission District Coordinator for Kamukunji and Makadara Districts of Nairobi.

Kanyi is currently working as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Nairobi - the African Women Studies Centre and a Researcher at the UON Women’s Economic Empowerment Hub where she is a coordinator of the Policy Advocacy Rapid Response Team. She continues to advocate for women’s empowerment and gender responsive social change is search of a society where all girls and boys, women and men of all categories can live harmoniously, develop, and exploit their potential to the full and for the benefit of all.