The RWI Nairobi Office was established in 2002, although RWI has worked in Kenya and other countries in the region since the early 1990s. The office is currently responsible for the management of the Institute’s bilateral cooperation programmes in Kenya and Ethiopia as well as cooperation regionally in Africa, and is also currently exploring new bilateral as well as regional and sub-regional partnership opportunities.
Staff in Nairobi
Rakel Larsen
Rakel Larsen joined RWI in November 2020 as the Director of the Nairobi Office. She brings more than 15 years of work experience in refugee protection, displacement and human rights mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the RWI, she worked for the Danish Refugee Council with humanitarian response and protection of refugees and other displaced persons in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.
Furthermore, she holds a Master’s in Law and a Master’s in African Studies (Human Rights and Development) from the University of Copenhagen.
Chris Muthuri
Deputy Director of the Nairobi Office.
Regional Africa Programme — Focal Point: African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR), ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), Continuous Monitoring and Evaluation
Chris has over a decade’s experience working with several international, regional and local organisations across Africa. He has extensive experience in advocacy, programme management and fundraising having taken up leadership roles on several instances. Chris joined the Institute in October 2017 working on the Regional Africa Programme from RWI’s Nairobi office.
Damaris Seina
Regional Africa Programme. Focal Point: African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF), East African Community (EAC)
Damaris has worked at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute since 2015 as the Kenya Programme Officer and is responsible for planning, implementation and follow-up of cooperation projects in Kenya so as to achieve expected results.
Marion Cheredi
Marion Cheredi, Senior Programme Associate, has more than 10 years of experience with international organizations, most recently the World Agroforestry Centre. She has a degree in Business Administration and Management & Marketing, secondly is a diploma in Management and Development. Marion will focus particularly on adminstrative support to our bilateral cooperation in Kenya, as well as providing human resources support as the office continues to develop.
Gilford Kimathi
Gilford Kimathi is a Programme Officer at the Nairobi Office supporting the Regional Africa and Ethiopia programmes. He brings a decade of experience in programme management, where he has also contributed to research and human rights capacity development. Before joining RWI, Gilford worked five years with the Network for African National Human Rights Institutions, through which he has gained extensive experience with African human rights mechanisms and frameworks.
Eunice Ogolla
Eunice Ogolla is the Finance and Admin Officer at RWI Nairobi regional office and joined the Institute in February 2021. Prior to joining the institute she worked as an Accountant in the Humanitarian sector and supported Accounting across Africa. She has experience in Financial Reporting, Asset management, Treasury management, budgeting, taxation, Auditing and Internal Controls.
Eunice holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree(Accounting) from Strathmore University and is also an ACCA affiliate.
Mumbi Maina-Murimi
Nicholas Kioko
Nick Kioko is the Senior Finance and Admin Officer at RWI Nairobi regional office and joined the Institute in April 2020. Prior to joining the Institute, he worked as a Finance Manager in the humanitarian sector across the East African region. He has over 9 (nine) years of experience and expertise in top-level grant/donor and financial management, leadership, donor reporting and compliance, computerized financial management information systems, program administration, accounting, budgeting, auditing, internal controls, taxation and financial analysis. Nick holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics, Sociology and Psychology) from Kenyatta University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya (CPA- K).
Pasca Chesach
Pasca Chesach joins RWI as the Programme Associate Communications supporting the Regional Office in Nairobi in Programme Communications and Administration. Pasca has over 5 years in strategic communications and supporting programmes for International and local organizations in communications, most recently Christian Aid. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and is currently pursuing her Masters in Development Communication. With a background that spans multiple areas of communication, Pasca brings a wealth of experience in crafting impactful messages and engaging diverse audiences for effective communication.
Address
3rd Floor, Lenana Towers
Lenana Road
P.O. Box 1590-00606, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone +254 (0) 796 730 518
Email: nairobi@rwi.lu.se