People

Dr. Sellah King’oro

Kenya

Biography

Dr. Sellah Nasimiyu King’oro is the Assistant Director of the Research, Policy and Planning Department at the National Cohesion and Integration Commission. Dr. King’oro has over 11 years of experience in social research with interests in measuring peace, ethnic relations, genocide prevention and social cohesion among others. She coordinated the concept development and implementation of the first ever ethnic audits of public institutions in Kenya. Additionally, she was appointed a Global Peace Index Ambassador by the Institute of Economics and Peace, USA following her great efforts in developing a Social Cohesion Index for Kenya in 2013. Dr. King’oro worked for both local and international NGOs before joining the Commission. She has a PhD in Peace and Conflict (Kisii University), a Master of Arts in International Studies (University of Nairobi), a Bachelor of Education Arts (Maseno University) and a Bachelor of Laws (Mount Kenya University). She is also a Rotary Peace Fellow Alumni with a postgraduate certificate in Peace and Conflict from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and a diploma in ‘Using Democracy for Peace’ from Bradford University, UK, and a certificate in ‘The Responsibility to Protect’ from the Kofi Annan International Peace Training Centre, Ghana.

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“How can Africa lead for peace? Things are changed; Africa is adopting homegrown solutions to address conflicts. In 2007, the post-election conflicts in Kenya spread across the country. Despite of the fact that the immediate issue was power sharing, we needed to look at the underlying issues of the violence. The mediation process gave path to local institutions that would later address root causes of the post-election violence.”

Dr. Sellah King’oro