Maina Kiai

Maina Kiai is the founding director of Human Rights Watch’s Alliances and Partnerships Program, which focuses on working closely with local partners to strengthen human rights. He previously served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association from 2011 to 2017. Prior to that position, Maina Kiai spend 25 years campaigning for human rights and constitutional reform in Kenya, notably through serving as the Chairman of Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission from 2003 to 2008. In 2010, he co-founded InformAction, a Kenyan grassroots organization that uses film and documentaries to educate people and urge them to claim their rights.