Next generation leaders in Africa

  • November 28, 2012
Next generation leaders in Africa

Njoki Wamai is identified as one of the next generation of leaders in the field of peace and security in Africa.

A Gates Cambridge Scholar has been profiled as one of the next generation of scholars, thinkers and practitioners in the field of peace and security in Africa. 

Njoki Wamai [2012], who is doing a PhD in Politics and International Studies, was profiled in the African Security Sector Newsletter, which is considered Africa’s leading and most inclusive professional network in the field of peace and security.

Njoki’s PhD research will focus on recent mediation processes in Africa and how to build sustainable peace. She has also written papers on why the African Union’s mediation efforts failed during the 2011 crises in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya.  

Njoki has managed advocacy and research programmes on governance, peace and security in Africa as a researcher and programme associate in several organisations, including the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon; the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Nairobi; the Kenya Human Rights Commission; and the Kenyan Ministry of Youth Affairs.

She was also a human rights worker during the Kenyan post-election violence in 2007/08. Njoki is described in the article as “a feminist and pan-Africanist who is committed to working for the improvement of the African continent” and introduced as one of a generation of future leaders who show “remarkable promise”.

Njoki says: “Being identified by the leading security sector reform research institution on the African continent as having the capacity and potential to be one of the next generation of  tranformative African thinkers and practitioners in the field of peace and security is both humbling  and motivating.”

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