Willis Okumu (Anglican Development Services)

Willis Okumu is a Researcher/Peacebuilding Coordinator at Anglican Development Services Kenya. He is also the Project Leader/Principal Investigator ‘From Hope to Despair: An Ethnography of Youth Experiences of Human Trafficking Networks in Kenya’ in collaboration with Anti-Slavery Knowledge Network based at the University of Liverpool. He is also a Co-Investigator in the ‘‘Examining Interpretations of Civic National Values: Advancing Shared Communications Through the Voices and Actions of Children in Post-Conflict Settings-An intercontinental comparative project between Kenya and Nepal, a collaborative research project by Anglican Development Services Kenya, St. Paul’s University Limuru, Brighton University UK and Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

Willis previously worked as a Junior Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at University of Bonn under the Right Livelihood College (RLC)/DAAD Scholarship. He also worked in the Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation of Socio-Ecological Systems of African Savannas, a project of the University of Cologne in Baringo, Samburu and Laikipia Counties. Willis holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cologne. He also holds an MA in Culture and Environment in Africa from the University of Cologne and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Nairobi. He is a Fellow of Africa Good Governance Network (AGGN) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and an Associate Fellow of Africa Research and Resource Forum (ARRF) a think-tank based in Nairobi.

Willis is a Co-Investigator on the Phase 2 project 'Examining Interpretations of Civic National Values by Young People' (Kenya and Nepal).