Mrs. Winfred Osimbo Lichuma, EBS
Senior Partner
Mrs. Winfred Osimbo Lichuma, EBS is an advocate of over 25 years’ experience and a Gender, Human Rights and Governance Specialist at the domestic, regional and international level having undertaken assignments at all levels and having engaged and facilitated human rights and HIV and AIDS programming in Kenya widely.
Mrs. Winfred Osimbo Lichuma is the immediate past and first Chairperson of the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) in Kenya (2012-22nd November 2017), a constitutional body charged with the responsibility of monitoring gender and inclusion in Kenya for the Special interest groups who include women, persons with disabilities, the marginalized and minorities, children, youth and older members of society. Her role also entailed giving advisories to government on integrating the principles of gender and equality in development including holding the government to account for noncompliance. In this role Winfred worked closely with the Parliament of Kenya. Before her exit she commissioned the Audit of Kenya Parliament on gender sensitivity in both process, composition and in legislative framework.
Winfred has been instrumental on accountability for the right to health in Kenya with bias to Sexual and Reproductive rights of women and girls and to this end she has led and documented two public inquiries. The first one is on Sexual and Reproductive health in Kenya-A myth or a reality available at www.knchr.org and the second is on Child Pregnancies in Kenya available at www.ngeckenya.org .
She sits in the following boards:
- Equality Now-Africa and Global Board
- KELIN-Kenya
- HERAF-Kenya
- Chairperson-Women Environment Programme Nigeria
- Chairperson-Sacred Heart Mukumu Girls High School
She is a Member of the following professional bodies:
- Law Society of Kenya (LSK)-Member
- Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA)-Member
- The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)-Member
- Institute of Certified Secretaries (ICS)-Member
- Women of Boards Network Kenya-Member
- Women Environment Programme Nigeria-Chairperson
Winfred holds a master’s degree in international human rights law from the University of Essex (UK); a master’s in Gender and Development and a law degree from the University of Nairobi (Kenya). She is a lawyer with over 25 years of senior level country leadership in human rights and gender and inclusion and has expertise in integrating gender into development programming. She has led policy and legal research and dialogue on various topics including sexual and reproductive health and rights using human rights based approach in Kenya and at the regional level. Previously, she has served as a magistrate in Kenya’s courts. Prior to her appointment as the Chairperson of the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), she served as a commissioner with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and also as a legal adviser to the Kenya’s National Aids Control Council and contributed to drafting the HIV and Aids Prevention and Control law.
| University of Nairobi, Kenya-2006 | Masters of Arts in Gender and Development |
| University of Essex – United Kingdom -2005 | Masters of Laws (LLM) in International Human Rights Law. |
| University of Lund, Sweden -2003 | Post graduate Diploma in Advanced International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law |
| Kenya School of Law-1991 | Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies/ Practice including Legislative drafting |
| Nairobi University, Kenya-1990 | LLB (Bachelor of Law) |
Mrs. Lichuma was appointed by the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as a Panel Member of Every Child Every Woman (ECEW) Independent Accountability Panel (IAP), to oversee implementation of the UN Global Strategy for Women, Children and Adolescents Health to help further the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal’s Agenda. She is the first African woman to sit on this panel. The global panel with 9 experts is an accountability body that seeks to look at the State of Women, Children and Adolescents Health and give a status report on progress made towards achieving the global strategy objectives. The Panel has released two reports to date available at www.iapewec.org
Key among the roles she has accomplished at the NGEC was the advocacy on the search for a framework to enhance political representation for women in the National Assembly and the Senate in implementation of the “not more than two third” equality principle provided for in the Kenya Constitution 2010. She has facilitated and given advisories to the President of Kenya and other public and private institutions including County Governments on the integration of the principles of equality and freedom from discrimination. Under her watch the first report on the Status of Equality and non-discrimination in Kenya was documented and released.
She has also worked toward ending gender based violence in Kenya and led NGEC to launch a campaign dubbed “Keeping the Promise” which is an accountability call for National and County Governments in Kenya to implement the laws and policies to end gender based violence.
Mrs Lichuma has since 2016 to May 2018 co- facilitated global negotiations on Gender and Climate change during the United Nations Negotiations on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as the key gender negotiator for Kenya and has offered secretariat to the African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change at the regional level. She has also facilitated and made presentations in numerous meetings in Kenya, continentally, regionally and internationally for public and private organizations i.e. CSOs including Ipas Africa Alliance of the right to safe legal abortion, AMREF International and KELIN in Kenya.
- Elder of the Award of the Order of the Burning Spear (E.B.S.)-2013-12th December -Honors of Award bestowed by His Excellency the President Hon Uhuru Kenyatta-Award of Orders, Decorations and Medals in recognition of distinguished and outstanding
services rendered to the nation in her capacity as the chairperson of the National Gender and equality Commission for spearheading reforms and previous service at KNCHR, NACC and the Judiciary. - 2015 Women on the Red excellence awards finalists’ workshop in Kenya.