Governance

The Team

The Institute is governed by a Board of Directors and works with Fellows drawn from across public life.

Board

Board of Directors

Prof. Nick Gatheru Wanjohi

Chairman

Academic

Prof. Nick Gatheru Wanjohi chairs the Board of the Mwai Kibaki Institute. An academic by background, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology before joining State House, where he was Private Secretary and economic adviser to President Mwai Kibaki. He continued to serve in the Office of the Retired President, and brings to the Institute both a scholar's discipline and direct experience of the decade of governance it exists to document.

Wangombe

Vice-Chairman

Public Sector Specialist

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Kiama Kaara

Chief Executive Officer & Secretary to the Board

Researcher and Development Policy Analyst

Kiama Kaara is a Kenyan governance and public policy specialist and the Chief Executive Officer of the Mwai Kibaki Institute. With a background in politics, sociology and development, his work centres on research, policy analysis and consulting across governance, political economy, public debt and public finance. He served as Senior Advisor and Private Secretary to the Governor of Laikipia County, and as Chief of Staff in the Office of the Governor. He has published conference papers, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, and advises county governments on fiscal decentralisation, debt management and public participation. He holds a master's degree in development studies specialising in international political economy, and a postgraduate degree in globalisation, social change and civil society.

Hon. Wanjuki Muchemi, SC

Director

Lawyer, Senior Counsel

Hon. Wanjuki Muchemi is a Senior Counsel and a former Solicitor General of the Republic of Kenya. He brings to the Board long experience of public law and of the machinery of government, spanning the constitutional and institutional reforms of the period the Institute was established to document.

Maria Mbeneka

Director

Lawyer and Businesswoman

Maria Mbeneka is a name partner of Mbeneka Advocates LLP and has practised law for twenty years. She is an elected council member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association representing Kenya, and has served as its Treasurer since 2023. A former council member and Treasurer of the Law Society of Kenya, she was also Vice President of the East Africa Law Society, with responsibility for public interest and strategic litigation, and served on Kenya's Industrial Property Tribunal. She holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and is a trained mediator. She is a life member of the Kenya Red Cross Society and Chairperson Emeritus of the County First Ladies Association.

Anthony Githinji Kibaki

Director

Businessman and Farmer

Anthony Githinji Kibaki is a Kenyan businessman and farmer with a deep interest in entrepreneurship, agriculture and community development. A cause close to him is the empowerment of young people: he holds that Africa's greatest asset is its youthful population, and that with the right opportunities, skills, mentorship and access to resources, young Africans can drive the continent's economic and social transformation. His aim is to help build more prosperous communities in which young people have the confidence and the means to build successful lives.

Michael Karanja

Director

Lawyer

Joseph Kahuko Mutua

Director

Accountant

Albert Ngari Gituku

Director

Communication Specialist

Fellows

Fellows of the Institute

The Institute confers fellowship on individuals who have made a distinguished contribution to the service of the nation. Fellows work closely with the Institute on research, publishing and policy roundtables.

About the Fellowship Programme

Hon. Ndiritu Muriithi

Fellow

Economist

Hon. Ndiritu Muriithi is a public and private finance expert with over three decades of professional and leadership experience, and is Chairman of the Board of the Kenya Revenue Authority. Managing Partner of Ecocapp Capital, he spent fourteen years in the private sector, largely with the IFC, working on financial and capital market development in Kenya and across Africa. He was elected Member of Parliament for Laikipia West and served as Assistant Minister for Industrialisation, and was later elected Governor of Laikipia County. As Governor he structured the county's infrastructure bond, the Nanyuki Bulk Water project and county equipment leasing. He advises seven countries on public finance, writes a regular economics column, and holds a master's degree in project management from the University of Technology Sydney.

Mugo Kibati

Fellow

Business Leader and Engineer

Mugo Kibati is a Kenyan business leader whose career spans the public and private sectors. He was the founding Director General of the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat, where he led the implementation of the national development blueprint launched under President Kibaki. He has since served as Group CEO of Sanlam Kenya and as Chief Executive of Telkom Kenya, and earlier as Group Managing Director of East African Cables. He chairs the board of the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, Africa's largest wind energy plant, and has held board positions at I&M Bank and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers. An electrical engineer by training, he holds degrees from Moi University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and George Washington University.

Dr. Wilfred Kiboro

Fellow

Media and Business Leader

Dr. Wilfred Kiboro is one of Kenya's most respected business leaders and a long-standing champion of media freedom. He joined Nation Media Group in 1993, became Group Chief Executive in 1995, and led the company's transformation from a print publisher into a regional multimedia group before retiring as CEO in 2006. He served as Chairman of the Board from 2009 until his retirement in 2025, a tenure of sixteen years. He has also chaired Standard Chartered Bank Kenya and Family Bank, and is Chancellor of Riara University. A committed conservationist, he has worked on the Aberdare fence project and serves as a trustee of Rhino Ark. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of Nairobi and an honorary doctorate from Kenyatta University.