Alice Wairimu Nderitu | |
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![]() Nderitu in a 2022 interview with the United States Institute of Peace | |
Born | Nairobi, Kenya | 9 January 1968
Nationality | Kenyan |
Alma mater | University of Nairobi (B.A. and Master's) |
Occupation(s) | Conflict researcher and mediator |
Known for | United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide |
Awards |
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Alice Wairimu Nderitu (born 9 January 1968 in Nairobi, Kenya) [2] is a Kenyan mediator who formerly served as the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide under United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres from 2020 to 2024. [3] [4] [5]
Nderitu was born in Nairobi, Kenya. [6] [1] She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Philosophy (1990) and a Master's degree in Armed Conflict and Peace Studies (2013) from the University of Nairobi, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Keene State College. [7]
From 1992 to 1999, Nderitu was Researcher and Administrator of the Kenya Prisons Service within the Kenya Ministry of Home Affairs. [8]
From 1999 to 2007, she headed the human rights education department (the Human Rights Education and Capacity-Building Programme) of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (earlier, known as the Kenya Standing Committee on Human Rights). [9] [8]
From 2007 to 2009, Nderitu served as Director of Education for Social Justice at the non-profit human rights organization Fahamu. [8]
From 2009 to 2013, Nderitu served as a Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission in Kenya, established to mediate religious, ethnic, and race-related conflicts, counter hate speech, and promote peaceful coexistence. [9] [10] She was one of three mediators (the other two were men) of the Nakuru Accord, between ten ethnic communities to prevent a repeat of the country’s 2007-08 election violence that had included an estimated 1,500 deaths, 3,000 rapes, and 650,000 displaced residents. [11] For 16 months in her role as Commissioner she was a founder and first Co-Chair of Uwiano Platform for Peace, a conflict-prevention agency founded in 2010 that uses mobile technology to encourage citizens to report indicators of violence, linking early warning to early response. [9] She would later travel to Myanmar to help design and put in place the country’s first early warning linked to early response program.
Starting in 2013, Nderitu served as a member of the Kenya National Committee on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and all Forms of Discrimination. [7] She also served as an Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities instructor. [12] She also served as Summer Course faculty member at SIT Graduate Institute, Vermont, Brattleboro, USA, and lecturer of the Socio-Economic Rights course at Pretoria University’s Centre for Human Rights, South Africa. She has also served as facilitator of the Senior Mission Leaders Course at the International Peace Support Training Center, Kenya and the Rwanda Military Academy, Rwanda. [ citation needed ]
Nderitu served as a Commissioner of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the dissolution of the Makueni County government in Kenya. [13] [14]
She has contributed in defining the role of women mediators, as a signatory and mediator to peace agreements in armed conflicts. [15] [16] Committed to communities and linking the local with the global, Nderitu has also been an advocate of women inclusion in various international forums. [17]
Nderitu led the mediation process that led to the 2012 peace agreement signed by 10 ethnic communities in Nakuru, Kenya. [9] For 16 months, she led the crafting the peace process with 100 elders and three mediators. [9]
She was also the lead mediator in a peace process in Kaduna State, Nigeria.[9] It led to the signing of the 2016 Kafanchan Peace Declaration by 29 ethnic communities.[9]
Nderitu was the lead mediator in a peace process in Southern Plateau, Nigeria.[9] It led to 56 ethnic communities signing the Southern Plateau Inter-Communal Peace Declaration in 2017.[11][9]
In 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Nderitu the UN's Under-Secretary-General and Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide. [8] The Secretary-General described her as a "recognized voice in the field of peacebuilding and violence prevention" due to her conflict-resolution efforts. [8]
Nderitu has served as a member of the African Union's Network of African Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation (Fem-Wise), the Women Waging Peace Network, the Concerned Citizens for Peace (a group of Elders facilitating peace between African leaders), and the Global Alliance of Women Mediators. [18] [9] She is also the founder of the Community Voices for Peace and Pluralism, a network of African women professionals preventing and transforming conflicts worldwide. [9] She was also a Commonwealth Exchange Fellow at the South African Human Rights Commission. [9]
In addition, Nderitu is a columnist with The EastAfrican newspaper. [40]
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