James K. Nyoro - Director

James Karanja Nyoro is the Director of Tegemeo Institute, Egerton University, Kenya. Previously, he worked as an Agricultural Economist with the Coffee Research Foundation, Ruiru, Kenya. He has a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from the University of Nairobi and a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics from the Wye College, University of London.

He has been engaged in agricultural policy analysis work on key economic issues pertaining to market reform in Kenya, monitoring of the reform process and an evaluation of the impact of reform on producers and consumers. He has specifically worked on impacts of policy changes in coffee, maize, wheat, and horticulture among others. He has also been involved in a wide range of industry and government appointed task forces to recommend the liberalization of key sub-sectors like coffee, tea and pyrethrum industry.

James has written many research papers on agricultural policy in Kenya. He has done several consultancies with the World Bank, DFID, FAO, Ford Foundation and the USAID. He has recently been involved in the preparation of Kenya Rural Development Strategy.

Gem Argwings-Kodhek – Senior Research Fellow

Gem Argwings-Kodhek is Coordinator of the Agricultural Sector Coordinating Unit (ASCU) driving the agricultural policy reform process from within the Kenyan government.
He holds a Masters Degree in Agricultural Economics and has been working in agricultural policy research, analysis and advocacy for the last 18 years. He is on secondment from his position as a Senior Research Fellow at Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University, and has been involved in several long-term projects in association with his alma mater - The University of Arizona, Stanford University and Michigan State . He has spoken and published widely on the full range of agricultural policy and poverty issues in Kenya.

Recent Work: Gem was involved in the initial execution and analysis of the Tegemeo Household Survey and in the Policy Analysis for Participatory Poverty Alleviation PAPPA project that combined quantitative and participatory qualitative approaches to the analysis of poverty in rural Kenya. He has been extensively involved in outreach work with parliamentarians and the private sector, and recent consulting assignments have included setting benchmarks for a Kenya Agricultural Research Institute outreach project, and an evaluation of FAO managed farmer field schools in East Africa. Currently he is working mainly on improving access to financial services, and analyzing costs and options for Kenya’s sugar industry.

Betty Kibaara - Research Fellow

Betty Kibaara holds a Bsc degree in Agricultural Business Management, Egerton University-Kenya and a Msc in Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University-USA. Her research project focused on Technical Efficiency in Kenyan’s Maize Production using the Stochastic Frontier Approach. Her areas of interest are: - Applied Econometrics, Agricultural International Trade, Agricultural Marketing and Socio-economic baseline analysis. She has a wide experience in socio-economic baseline surveys and data analysis. Currently undertaking a study on Rural Financial Services in Kenya.

Raphael Gitau - Research Fellow

Raphael Gitau holds a Bsc degree in Agribusiness Management from Egerton University and a Masters degree in International Development from the Graduate Institute for Policy studies(GRIPS) in Tokyo, Japan. His area of specialization includes applied econometrics, development economics, environmental and natural resource economics, trade and industrialization. He is widely experienced in social-economic surveys and data analysis. He is currently undertaking a study on Regional Food Security Challenge Informing Public Policy On the Role of Biotechnology in Poverty Alleviation in Kenya and Uganda.

Simon C. Kimenju - Research Fellow

Simon C. Kimenju holds a MSc. Agricultural Economics and a BSc. Agriculture degree both from the University of Nairobi. Before joining the Institute, Kimenju worked with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as an Agricultural Economist where he gained wide experience on farmer/consumer preference for new technologies. His interests include applied econometrics, marketing, food and nutrition, farm incomes and investments, biotechnology, and consumer preference.

He has been involved in baseline surveys and impact assessment. He is currently involved in a study on poverty, environment, and agricultural technologies in Kenya.

Sahondra Kiplagat - Research Fellow

Sahondra Kiplagat holds a PHD in environmental psychology from the University of Surrey, UK; MSc in environmental psychology from the University of Surrey, UK and a BA Psychology from the University of Reading, UK.

Her research focused on the psycho-social effects of natural disasters, specifically the cyclone. She examined how the population coped before, during and after the passage of a cyclone and the inter-relationship with policy formulation.

She has been a lecturer in the department of psychology, Nairobi University. She has also participated in research on the impact following the aftermath of the tsunami

Her areas of specialization and interest are global warming, natural disasters and climate change.

Charity Irungu - Research Fellow

Charity Irungu holds a PhD (2003) in Agricultural Economics from the Institute of Rural Development, Georg-August University, Goettingen, Germany, with specialization in Socio-economics of Rural Development and Development Economics. Her Msc in Agriculture in Tropics and Subtropics in the same university specialized in Socio-economics of Rural Development, Development Sociology and Production Economics. She obtained her Bsc in Agriculture from the University of Nairobi.

Past research areas include poverty analysis, evaluation of agricultural and rural development programmes, micro-finance, analysis of markets for agricultural produce and agro-biodiversity.

Charity is a former lecturer at the Centre for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Masinde Murilo University of Science and Technology. She has also taught at the University of Nairobi, Daystar University and St. Paul’s University. She has done several research consultancies for national and international organisations including Bioversity International and IRIS Centre, University of Maryland, USA.

Bruno Ogama - Finance Manager

Bruno Ogama is the Finance Manager. He holds an MBA (Corporate finance),CPA(K),and a BSc(Forestry). He has over 10 years experience in finance and administration. He joined Tegemeo in 2006 from DANIDA where he was the Finance and Administration officer for development projects in Makueni district for seven years. He has also worked at the East Africa Wildlife Society, Mater Hospital and Forest Department- Kericho where he was the District Forest Extension Officer.

Francis Karin - Senior Research Assistant

Francis Karin is a senior Research Assistant at Tegemeo Institute. First hired in 1988, he holds a Diploma in Farm Management from Egerton University. He has wide experience in data collection and analysis particularly in cereal and dairy production and marketing. He has been a member of the Dairy Reform Task Force. Francis has been instrumental in the production of a budget book for most crops and has also participated in PRA, Indicator Bench Marking and Baseline data collection for new projects and M & E. Currently he is involved in Rural Financial Services Study being undertaken by the institute.

Mary Kwamboka Bundi - Research Assistant

Mary Kwamboka Bundi has a BSc degree in Agribusiness Management from Egerton University, and is a Research Assistant with the Institute. She has been involved in research activities of the institute since 2002.Setting up baselines, data collection, cleaning, analysis using Spss/ Stata and general M & E work.

Daniel K. Kariuki - Research Assistant

Daniel Kagwe is a Research Assistant and holder of a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics. He has been involved in research-based activities at Tegemeo for a total of 4 years. Major activities involved in include Data Collection, Data Analysis and Preparation of Policy Papers.

Samuel Mburu - Research Assistant

Samuel Mburu is Research Assistant and holds a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Egerton University. He has been assisting in field data collection and analysis and report write-ups for the various research papers prepared by the institute.

Elizabeth Mutua - Administrative Assistant

Elizabeth L.M. Mutua is an administrative assistant with Tegemeo Institute. She has worked with Tegemeo Institute since 1991. She holds a diploma in secretarial management from Government Secretarial College, Mombasa, studied advanced French at the Kenya Institute of Administration Kabete (KIA) and Maison François in Nairobi. She has acquired excellent hands-on training and experience in computer packages such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power Point and Internet. Amongst her major duties and responsibilities are secretarial/administrative work, organizing conferences, seminars, workshops and preparation of conference proceedings.

Agnes Adhiambo - Librarian

Agnes joined Tegemeo in 1988 as a receptionist. She has trained as a typist and in computer applications at the Kenya polytechnic.She has been working in the documentation section of the Institute. Currently incharge of the institute Library.

Kenfred Warui - IT Assistant

Kenfred Warui is the IT Assistant. He holds a BSc Information Technology degree and is a Microsoft Certified Professional -MCP. He is in charge of Information Technology in the institute.