Maina Kiai

Maina Kiai is the former Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

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Created: 10th Sep 2008
Modified: 29th Oct 2008

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Biographical Information

Maina Kiai
(At a Glance)

Gender: male
Place of Origin: Kenya

Maina Kiai is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the immediate former Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

He is also the Founding Executive Director of the Non-Governmental Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), where he led the revitalization of the constitutional reform process in Kenya. He has served as Africa Director at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International and Director of Africa Programs at the International Human Rights Law Group in Washington DC (now called Global Rights).

Mr Kiai was named 2005 Jurist of the Year in 2005 by the ICJ-Kenya Section. He is a member of the Management Committee of the African Democracy Forum (ADF), the World Movement's Africa regional network. In addition he is a member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD).

He is a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, and has taught law at University of Nairobi and West Virginia University College of Law. He attended Harvard Law School with Barack Obama.