Member of the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability, Kaari Betty Murungi is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya with over 30 years’ experience in the practice of law at a national, regional and international level. Educated at the University of Nairobi and Kenya School of Law, she spent a year as a visiting fellow at the Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Programme, researching transitional justice mechanisms. She is currently Professor of Practice in the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and works as an independent consultant.

Ms. Murungi has broad experience in transitional justice processes, women’s human rights, gender, constitutionalism and governance. Over the past two decades, the focus of her interest and work has been to advance gender justice in international justice and accountability mechanisms, and to promote women’s human rights in the context of violent conflict. Ms. Murungi has worked on these issues in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Northern Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya. She has been an integral player in the jurisprudence of international criminal law and international humanitarian law insofar as it pertains to gender.

Ms. Murungi served: as Vice Chairperson and Commissioner to the Kenya Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (2009-2010); as the Africa representative on the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court (2009-2013); as  Senior Transitional Justice Advisor to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), South Sudan (2016-2018); and, as a member of the Independent Commission of Inquiry for the Occupied Palestinian Territory appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (July 2018- March 2019). She is a member of the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability, an independent group of senior African experts on international criminal law and human rights, including political figures, members of international and domestic tribunals, and human rights advocates that came together in November 2015 to strengthen justice and accountability in Africa.