By Prudence Minayo
Martha Koome made history by being the first female Chief Justice in the country. She has had an enviable career in the male dominated legal field spanning over three decades. An acclaimed expert in family law, she has been hailed for her keen interest in children welfare and in 2020 was named the UN Person of the Year Runners Up.
Away from the corridors of justice, she is a mother of three children; Kevin Koome, Nkirote Koome and the focus of this article, Kagwiria Koome.
Career
Kagwiria Koome is an international development practitioner with a wealth of experience in design and execution of programs that advance improved livelihoods. She has experience in health, agriculture, ICT for development, private sector development and in the governance sector. She has worked with some of the leading firms including as a senior consultant at Deloitte and a consultant at Dalberg Global Development Advisors.
Currently the CJ’s daughter works at the Rockefeller Foundation. Her job involves managing high impact grant portfolio with a focus on adapting food systems to distribute nutritious foods while safeguarding the environment.
“Two areas I am passionate about are the how-to guides that offer the steps to build technologies such as the charcoal cooler and zero energy cooling chambers, and the section on communication that includes training materials and messaging that can be used in various ways,” she said.
One of her greatest inspiration is her father who works with smallholder farmers in central Kenya to give them agronomy support.
About Rockefeller Foundation
Founded in 1913, Rockefeller Foundation aims at promoting humanity all over the world by making opportunity universal and sustainable. The science driven foundation advances new frontiers of science, data, policy and innovation to solve global challenges related to food, power, health and economic mobility. The philanthropic organization seeks to inspire and foster large scale human impact that facilitates the well being of humanity by recognizing and expediting breakthrough solutions, ideas and conversations. To date, the Foundation has contributed more than $17 billion to support organizations and individuals all over the world.
Previously, Kagwiria’s work at Rockefeller included a focus on the health sector where she worked both in East and West Africa.
Before taking up employment at Rockefeller Foundation, she served as a management consultant advisING various governments and development institutions on program design, strategy planning and investment across Africa with a focus on the health sector.
Credentials
Kagwiria has a Bachelor of Laws degree from Keele University and a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia.
