The Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA) promotes public participation in democratic governance, the rule of law, and respect for human rights by awarding grants, developing programs, and bringing together diverse civil society leaders and groups.

OSIEA plays an active role in encouraging open, informed dialogue about issues of public importance in East Africa.

Launched in 2005 and based in Nairobi, the OSIEA team is headed by Binaifer Nowrojee, a human rights advocate with extensive experience in Africa.

OSIEA supports work in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda as well as regional organizations whose mandate encompasses East Africa. In 2007, OSIEA’s grant-giving budget was $3 million.

East Africa

East Africa is a region in which democratic gains are simultaneously being made and reversed. After major openings in the political space of the past decades, the record of the governments in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda remains a source of both hope and disappointment.

Principles of democratic governance and public accountability remain high on the agenda of East Africans. Abuse of state power in these nations often goes unchecked, and mechanisms of accountability remain weak or marginalized. Corruption remains a major challenge throughout the region. Ethnic and regional tensions continue to be politically manipulated, often with dire consequences for marginalized groups. Negotiations to end the brutal conflict in Northern Uganda continue. Although there has been a significant flourishing of media organizations, free speech continues to be circumscribed in a variety of different ways. The epidemic of HIV/AIDS remains an unprecedented public health emergency in the region, thriving on stigma and human rights abuses against the most vulnerable East Africans. On all of these issues, civil society efforts in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda remain an important factor in maintaining and expanding the democratic space as well as facilitating public participation.

At the same time, new mechanisms of accountability are being created at the regional and international levels. These efforts could play an important role in checking impunity within East Africa. Engagement and advocacy by civil society advocates to strengthen these mechanisms in their formative stages will later have positive paybacks for Africans.

At the regional level, the African Union (AU) promises the possibility of stronger regional oversight. While still nascent, the AU’s New Partnership for Africa's Development and the newly created African Court of Justice are both vehicles for greater accountability.

At the international level, East Africa provides the largest theater for ongoing international justice interventions by the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. International criminal law provides another check on human rights violators. East African countries presently the subject of active international prosecutions include Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tanzania is the host country for the Rwanda tribunal.

Binaifer Nowrojee, Director
Nairobi/New York
bnowrojee@osiea.org
Binaifer Nowrojee heads the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA). Prior to joining OSIEA, she worked for 11 years as legal counsel with the Women's Rights and Africa Divisions of Human Rights Watch. Before that, she served as a staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Nowrojee has investigated and reported on human rights abuses throughout the African continent and is the author of a number of reports and articles on these issues. She is also a lecturer at Harvard Law School. Nowrojee graduated with a master's in law from Harvard Law School.

Anne Gathumbi, Program Officer
Nairobi
agathumbi@osiea.org
Anne Gathumbi is a program officer with OSIEA and the Open Society Institute Law and Health Initiative. She is responsible for the organization’s work to promote legal initiatives to advance the human rights of East Africans living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Gathumbi has more than 13 years experience working on justice and women's human rights issues in East Africa. Gathumbi has served as a program officer both with Trocaire's East Africa Office and with the Legal Resources Foundation (pioneering a community paralegal program). Gathumbi was a founding member of the Coalition on Violence Against Women, where she helped build a leading civil society network and spearheaded policy reform initiatives on women's rights issues. Gathumbi graduated from the University of Nairobi Law School and holds a postgraduate diploma in community development.

Mugambi Kiai, Program Officer
Nairobi
mkiai@osiea.org
Mugambi Kiai serves as a program officer with OSIEA and the OSI Africa Governance and Monitoring Project (AfriMAP). He is responsible for AfriMAP monitoring, research, and advocacy work around East African involvement with African Union mechanisms as well as grantmaking programming for OSIEA. Kiai previously worked as a senior program officer with the Canadian International Development Agency and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. In 2002, Kiai headed the Central Depository Unit, an electoral violence monitoring and advocacy program established by a Kenyan human rights coalition. Prior to that, he headed the Human Rights Advocacy program at the Kenya Human Rights Commission. Kiai graduated with a master's in law from Harvard Law School.

Richard Mugisha, Program Officer
Kampala
rmugisha@osiea.org
Richard Mugisha is a program officer with OSIEA based in Kampala, Uganda. He has 15 years experience working with civil society, refugee, and women's rights organizations in Uganda and the United Kingdom. Before coming to OSIEA, Mugisha served as program director with the Forum for Women in Democracy, a women's leadership development organization working in conflict areas of Uganda. In the United Kingdom, Mugisha worked extensively with refugee resettlement and integration programs. He has been published on a wide array of issues including governance, culture, and social justice. Mugisha received a BA degree in modern languages from the University of Westminster and in Russian language from Kishinev State University.

Juliana Osodo, Office Manager/Executive Assistant
Nairobi
josodo@osiea.org
Juliana Osodo is the office manager of OSIEA and executive assistant to the director. She worked for over a decade with The Tamarind Group, which owns and manages a world-class chain of restaurants, including The Carnivore and Tamarind. Osodo holds an advanced certificate in business management from the Kenya Institute of Management.

Katrina Helz, Program Assistant
New York
khelz@sorosny.org
Katrina Helz is the New York-based program assistant for OSIEA. Before joining OSI’s New York office, she worked in Washington D.C. with the Latin America Program. Katrina attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she received a dual degree in International Studies and Spanish. As an undergraduate, she conducted research while working with indigenous populations in Mexico and Ecuador. Before coming to OSI, Katrina worked with human rights lawyers at the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington, D.C.

Adam Hussein, Program Coordinator
Nairobi
ahussein@osiea.org
Adam Hussein is the Africa program coordinator for the Open Society Justice Initiative’s citizenship and statelessness project. Based in the OSIEA offices, he is responsible for advocacy work around gaps in citizenship protections at African Union level. He has worked extensively on citizenship and diversity issues as they relate to discrimination, exclusion and conflict in Kenya. From 2001-2007, he worked with the Centre for Minority Rights Development (CEMIRIDE), first as head of projects and later as senior program officer in charge of diversity programs. Prior to that, he was responsible for developing and coordinating projects for the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA) in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. He holds a BSc degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, and an International Diploma in Project Management from the University of Cambridge.

Grantmaking by the Open Society Initiative for East Africa during 2006 focused on anticorruption and budget-monitoring efforts, grassroots civic education on key governance issues, and youth voter registration in the lead-up to the 2007 election.

Read more about OSIEA 2006 activities.