Makwanyane Fellows
Abiodun Odusote
Lecturer, Faculty of Law at University of Lagos; Partner at Integrity Law Office
Dr. Abiodun Odusote is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law in the University of Lagos, where he is Team Lead of the Human Rights Clinic at the Human Rights Centre. He is also a support lawyer of Avocats Sans Frontières France where he represents indigent clients facing the death penalty. Abiodun is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the International Bar Association, and the African Constitutional Lawyers Network. Abiodun earned a PhD in International Human Rights in 2010 from Nottingham Trent University and Southampton Solent University.
Angela Uwandu
Head of Office at Avocats Sans Frontières France
Angela Uwandu has been at the forefront of the call for the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria, overseeing the implantation of the SAVING LIVES (SALI) project of Avocats Sans Frontières France. She has organized conferences and implemented trainings for lawyers, judges and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system on the death penalty.
Benard Maranga
Managing Partner at Maranga & Co
Dr. Benard Maranga is Managing Partner at Maranga & Co., a Quality Assurance Director and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Legal Practice and Development, and a lecturer at Kabarak University. He is an advocate of the High Courts of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. In his cases, he has contributed to the development of mandatory bail jurisprudence, and has defended over 50 capital defendants in Kenya and Uganda, including innocence cases.
Blessing Gorejena
Acting Executive Director at Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
Blessing Gorejena has been a part of the campaigns against the death penalty in Zimbabwe through her work with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and in partnership with other local organizations such as Amnesty International, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, and Veritas. Blessing has worked with victims of violence and torture and has participated in a number of lobby forums, both national and international, for the improvement of human rights in her country. Blessing is currently the acting Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, a coalition of 21 human rights organizations in Zimbabwe.
Chimwemwe Chithope-Mwale
Chief Legal Aid Advocate at Legal Aid Bureau
In 2010, Chimwemwe Chithope-Mwale joined the Legal Aid Bureau, a government office mandated to provide legal aid to indigent persons. He has represented over 50 clients facing the death penalty during his time at Legal Aid. He presently works as a Chief Legal Aid Advocate and heads one of only three regional Legal Aid Bureau offices in Malawi. He is also the Treasurer of the Mzuzu Chapter of the Malawi Law Society.
Fredrick Mbaziira
Managing Partner at Mbaziira & Co. Advocates
Fredrick Mbaziira of Mbaziira & Co. provides pro bono legal services to indigent and marginalized capital clients in Uganda. He has worked with the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary in Uganda by training judicial officers and court clerks in mediation, plea bargaining, and interpretation skills at the Judiciary Studies Institute. He has also lectured at the Law Development Centre (LDC) Legal Aid Clinic/Project (LAC/P), where he has trained students on interviewing, counseling and fact investigation, mediation, and inquiry.
Gatambia Ndungu
Legal and Human Rights Officer at Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, North Rift Regional Office
Gatambia Ndungu is a Legal and Human Rights Officer with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights based in its North Rift Regional Office. He previously worked as a Legal Officer for Kenya’s Correctional Department and has also practiced law privately with a focus on criminal litigation. In October 2014, he received the Gold Standard from the President of Kenya under the President’s Award Scheme for young people in recognition of his community legal aid service at the Langata Women’s Maximum Prison in Nairobi.
Ian Chipiliro Twea
Attorney at H.S.K. Twea and Associates
Ian Chipiliro Twea is an attorney at his firm H.S.K. Twea and Associates in Zomba, Malawi. Ian has experience in public interest litigation and criminal defense, including pro bono work on post-Kafantayeni representation. He set up a juvenile education program at Zomba Central Prison.
Innocent Maja
Partner at Maja and Associates; Law Lecturer at University of Zimbabwe
Dr. Innocent Maja is a lecturer in the Law Faculty in University of Zimbabwe, and is setting up a death penalty law clinic to train students in death penalty defense. He also practices law at Maja and Associates. Innocent was part of the campaign to abolish the death penalty which culminated in the removal of the mandatory death sentence in the Zimbabwean Constitution. He has also published texts on the death penalty, freedom of expression, minority rights, minority language rights, and international terrorism.
Jebra Kambole
Head of Human Rights Litigation at Law Guards Advocates
Jebra Kambole is the co-founder and head of litigation of Law Guards Advocates. Jebra is one of the few lawyers who participates in educating the public through the media on laws, politics, and human rights. He has handled several high-profile cases concerning human rights and human rights defenders. Jebra is a member of the Tanganyika Law Society Committee of Constitutional and Legal Affairs.
Mandy Manda
Executive Director at National Legal Aid Clinic for Women
Mandy Manda works in private practice, providing legal aid to indigent people, particularly women and girls. Since 2011, Mandy has been CEO at the Law Association of Zambia National Legal Aid Clinic for Women (NLACW), a lead legal aid service provider for women and children from marginalized social sectors in Zambia. Mandy is currently a member of the Anti-Gender-Based Violence Committee under the Ministry of Gender in Zambia and a key advisor on policy and legal matters aimed at promoting gender equity and equality.
Noel Odoyo Brown
Counsel at Noel Brown & Associates
Noel Odoyo Brown earned his LL.B. in law from the University of Lagos in 2005 and proceeded to the Enugu Campus of the Nigerian Law School. He gained pupilage with Justice Alogba of the Lagos High Court and Chito Eziani & Co. He received mentorship at Supo Ati-John & Co. and from Chino Obiagwu as a volunteer pro bono counsel at Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), where he got most of his experience in criminal law practice. He started Noel Brown & Associates in 2010.
Pamela Okoroigwe
Senior Legal and Programme Officer at Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP)
Pamela Okoroigwe is a Senior Legal and Programme Officer with Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP), where she conducts legal research, delivers pro bono services to survivors of human rights violations, and litigates capital cases in trial and appellate courts in Nigeria. She is a member of the Nigeria Death Penalty Group (NDELPEG), a coalition of over 20 civil society organizations advocating for the abolition of death penalty in Nigeria, and is a Chartered Secretary and member of the Nigerian Bar Association. She is also the coordinator of the Working Group of Eight (WG8) on violence against women in Lagos, Nigeria.
Sandrine Dacga
Lawyer
Sandrine Dacga is a member of Cameroonian and Nigerian Bar Associations and has practiced as a barrister and a solicitor in many fields. In 2015, she joined the Cameroonian Lawyers Network against the Death Penalty and since then, she has been committed to abolishing the death penalty. She is actively working on death penalty and other cases involving indigent clients.
Suzan Sylvia Wakabala
Partner at Asiimwe, Namawejje & Co. Advocates
Suzan Sylvia Wakabala is an advocate practicing with Asiimwe, Namawejje & Co. Advocates since 2011. She participated in the first mitigation exercise carried out in Uganda after the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in 2011, and has represented clients on state brief in the International Crimes Division in Uganda. She also established a plea bargaining project, where she provided trainings to judges, magistrates, state attorneys and fellow advocates.
Alexious Kamangila
Legal practitioner at Mbeta & Company
Alexious Kamangila is a legal practitioner at Mbeta & Company and coordinates the Service to the Prison program in the Community of Sant'Egidio in Malawi. In 2015, he started a Legal Clinic at Chichiri Prison with Sant Egidio, which offers free legal services to homicide suspects, especially those unconstitutionally incarcerated while awaiting trial. As an ardent advocate against the death penalty, he organizes annual National Conferences for abolition in Malawi. As a student, he was involved in the Kafantayeni Resentencing Project, which aims to obtain retrials for all prisoners in Malawi who were sentenced to the mandatory death penalty prior to it being struck down.
Anita Alfred Kyaruzi
Programme Officer, Rule of Law at Pan African Lawyers Union
Anita Alfred Kyaruzi is the Programme Officer for Human and Peoples’ Rights at the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) in Tanzania, where she litigates before both the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the East African Court of Justice. She gained experience working in the Legal Advisory Section of the International Criminal Court, The Hague, as well as with Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) in Tanzania, where she advised and assisted indigent people to litigate on matters of human rights before national courts. Anita is a member of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) and the East African Law Society (EALS). Since November 2018, Anita has been a Legal Associate at the African Union.
Anne Munyua
Managing Partner at Mogire Nyamwaya and Company Advocates; Head of Legal Services at County Government of Nandi
Anne Munyua is the Head of Legal Services, County Government of Nandi, and Managing Partner at Mogire Nyamwaya and Company Advocates, Kenya. She has consistently worked for the improvement of the criminal justice sector in her country at both the national and county level. She has also been at the forefront of the call for the abolition of the death penalty in Kenya. She provides pro bono legal aid services to indigent persons facing the death penalty.
Bwighane Mwenifumbo
Chief Legal Aid Advocate at the Legal Aid Bureau
Bwighane Mwenifumbo is Chief Legal Aid Advocate at the Legal Aid Bureau in Malawi, where she heads the Legal Department of the Central Regional branch. She has represented numerous clients during her time with the Bureau in both civil and criminal matters. She also represented people on death row who received a resentencing through the Kafantayeni Resentencing Project.
Cheryl Sembie
Legal Officer at AdvocAid
Cheryl Sembie is Legal Officer at AdvocAid in Sierra Leone, where she provides holistic legal aid and welfare support to women and girls in conflict with the law. In November 2017 she filed applications in both the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court contesting the mandatory death penalty as a violation of the fundamental right to life. Previously, as defense counsel appointed by the Sierra Leone Legal Aid Board, she provided legal representation and counselling to over 1,000 indigent accused people charged with serious offences before the High Court of Sierra Leone.
Doreen Namyalo-Kyazze
Africa Programme Manager at Penal Reform International
Doreen Namyalo-Kyazze is the Africa Programme Manager for Penal Reform International. She served as project manager and legal expert on a number of projects in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, including a death penalty petition that led to the abolition of the mandatory death penalty in Uganda. She facilitated the establishment of the East African Coalition against the Death Penalty and drafted the first private members’ bill that seeks to restrict the application of the death penalty in Uganda. Over the course of her career, she has represented over 400 prisoners on death row, some of whom are now released, and many whose death penalties have been commuted to alternative sentences.
Kgosietsile Ngakaagae
Managing Partner at Ngakaagae & Co. Law Firm
Kgosi Ngakaagae is Managing Partner at Ngakaagae & Co. Law Firm in Botswana. Formerly a prosecutor for ten years, Kgosi has worked in capital defense since 2011. He handles capital cases and appeals for indigent clients before the High Court of Botswana and the Court of Appeal. Kgosi is a member of the Botswana Law Society.
Letsweletse Martin Mogakolodi Dingake
Senior Partner at Dingake Law Partners
Letsweletse Martin Mogakolodi Dingake is a legal practitioner at Dingake Law Partners in Botswana, working primarily in public law, human rights, and public interest litigation. He has represented indigent clients, refugees, immigrants, students, and occasionally workers. Mr. Dingake has been a member of the Technical Reference Group on Children in Conflict with the Law under UNICEF. He has acted as a consultant for the International Labour Organization, the Department of Gender Affairs, Woman Against Rape, and the International Commission of Jurists.
Mashaka Edgar Mfala
Chief Executive Officer at Bemora Attorneys
Mashaka Edgar Mfala is the Chief Executive Officer of Bemora Attorneys in Tanzania, where he has handled over twenty pro bono cases as a capital defense lawyer. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania and courts subordinate thereto. Previously, he was Chief Legal Counsel for Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre, a government entity under the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children. He is a member of Tanganyika Law Society and East African Law Society.
Mohamed Bawoh
Senior Defense Council at Legal Aid Board
Mohamed Bawoh is Senior Defense Council at the Legal Aid Board of Sierra Leone. He is the Senior-most (post-call) capital defender in Sierra Leone. He was appointed as a magistrate in the Sierra Leone Judiciary in 2008. He was previously the Director of Complaints, Investigations and Legal Services at the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, and Assistant to the Country Director of Amnesty International Sierra Leone Section.
Mohammed Muniru Kassim
Lawyer at Obour, Minta & Co. Solicitors
Mohammed Muniru Kassim is a lawyer at the criminal law firm Obour, Minta & Co., an advocate at the legal aid organization HelpLaw Ghana, and a lecturer at the Islamic University College of Ghana. After being called to the bar, Mohammed defended clients charged with criminal offenses, including offenses punishable by death, on a pro bono basis. As an advocate with HelpLaw Ghana, Mohammed, along with other colleagues, travels to Ghanaian communities to educate the public about their human rights and rights upon arrest.
Olafisoye Joke
Senior Legal Officer at Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP)
Olafisoye Joke is a Senior Legal Officer at the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) in Nigeria, a non-governmental organization engaged in the protection of human rights, the rule of law, access to justice, and good governance. She works on the Death Penalty Project, rendering pro bono services to victims of human rights violations and capital defendants before trial and appellate courts. She is also the Programmes Manager for the Nigeria Coalition for the International Criminal Court (NCICC), and a member of the Nigeria Death Penalty Group (NDELPEG) and the African Coalition on International Criminal Justice.
Sylvia Yiantet Kooke
Programmes Manager for the Legal Resources Foundation Trust (LRF)
Sylvia Yiantet Kooke is the Programmes Manager for the Legal Resources Foundation Trust (LRF) in Kenya, where she represents indigent clients. LRF was amicus curiae in the case Francis Kiarioko Muruatetu & Another v. Republic before the Supreme Court of Kenya, which decided that the mandatory death penalty was unconstitutional. She is also amongst the gazette members of the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ) Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR).
Abdul-Rasheed Saani Mahmoud
Legal Aid Officer at Legal Aid Commission
Abdul-Rasheed Saani Mahmoud is a Legal Aid Officer at the Legal Aid Commission in Ghana, responsible for indictments and summary trials. He is also a member of the Justice for All (JFA) Taskforce team responsible for the review of remand warrants from the various prisons and an in-house defense counsel for the team. He has represented more than 500 remand prisoners in the Justice for All court sittings.
Amani Joachim
Head of Public Interest and Strategic Litigation at Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC)
Amani Joachim is the Head of Public Interest and Strategic Litigation at the Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC), the most prominent human rights organization in Tanzania. As part of his role, he has travelled to local districts and conducted workshops and seminars on criminal injustice. He has nine years of experience in legal and developmental work. Amani is a member of the Bar Association of Tanzania and the Maritime Law Society of Tanzania.
Chrissy Kolezi Phiri
Principal Legal Aid Advocate, Mzuzu Office, at Legal Aid Bureau
Chrissy Kolezi Phiri is the Principal Legal Aid Advocate in the Mzuzu Office of the Legal Aid Bureau of Malawi, where he is responsible for providing guidance to the regional office on criminal law matters. As a student, he worked with the Bail and Mitigation Project to interview clients and draft bail applications for homicide suspects at Zomba Maximum Security Prison. He also participated in the Kafantayeni Resentencing Project, interviewing prisoners awaiting retrial after the Malawi High Court found the mandatory death penalty unconstitutional.
Evans Kaimenyi
Partner at Kaimenyi Mose & Company Advocates
Evans Kaimenyi is a Partner at Kaimenyi Mose & Company Advocates in Kenya. Evans has gained considerable experience in his four years of practice working with both state and non-state actors in the criminal justice system. He undertakes pro bono briefs for various organizations including the National Legal Aid Service, where he defends persons facing capital offences. He was further involved in the review of the Criminal Procedure Bench Book in Kenya. Evans frequently appears in front of the Nairobi Children’s Court representing and defending children in conflict with the law.
Evelyn Hazvinakwazvo Chijarira
Programme Manager, African International Law at Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU)
Evelyn Hazvinakwazvo Chijarira is the Programme Manager for African International Law at the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) in Tanzania, where she is the focal point for all human rights and litigation issues. In the past, she has litigated before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She actively advocates for the use of regional and continental redress mechanisms such as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the East African Court of Justice, and the African Commission.
Funke Adeoye
Executive Director at Hope Beyond Bars Africa
Funke Adeoye is the Founder of Hope Behind Bars Africa, a non-profit that provides legal services to indigent defendants, trains legal service providers, and promotes prison reform. Funke has achieved a 90% success rate for indigent capital clients from the Magistrate Court to the Court of Appeal. Hope Beyond Bars’ welfare projects reached over 1,000 people in prison. Funke was selected as one of 50 pro bono lawyers to pilot the Kuje Project, a US-sponsored Human Rights and Prison Decongestion project, through which she represents indigent capital clients while mentoring law clinic students.
George Musisi
Partner at PACE Advocates
George Musisi is a Partner and Co-Founder of PACE Advocates in Uganda, and manager of legal services for the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI). He has over eight years of criminal defense experience, representing people facing capital charges at trial and in mitigation hearings for remitted death sentences. George has further participated in several research projects advocating for better living conditions for people in prison. George previously served on the board of the Legal Aid Service Providers’ Network and is among the founding members of the Network of Public Interest Lawyers, on whose Advisory Committee he sits.
Guleid Ahmed Jama
Founder at Human Rights Center Somaliland
Guleid Ahmed Jama is the Founder of the Human Rights Center Somaliland, a leading human rights advocacy organization based in Somaliland, and a Founding Member of the SDG16+ Coalition in Somalia, where he advocates around SDG16+ issues at a national and international level. He works with the University of Hargeisa Legal Clinic where he provides free legal services to vulnerable people and victims of human rights abuses. He advocates on a wide range of human rights issues including freedom of expression, women’s rights, fair trial rights, and the abolition of the death penalty.
Hilda Viola Murhon
Research and Project Officer, Uganda Death Penalty Project at Penal Reform International
Hilda Viola Murhon is a Research and Project Officer for the Uganda Death Penalty Project of Penal Reform International. Before this, Hilda clerked at the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI), assisting in litigation for indigent people and marginalized groups. In her current role, Hilda has carried out research focusing discrimination in the prosecution of capital offenses. She has also organized consultations involving stakeholders on the death penalty such as the Uganda judiciary, government, prisons, the police, NGOs, and the Directorate of Public Prosecution. She further acts as a representative on the Criminal Justice Working Group of the Justice Law and Order Sector, whose vision is to “ensure that people in Uganda live in a safe and just society.”
Josephine Feimata Hinga
Legal Officer at AdvocAid
Josephine Feimata Hinga is a Legal Officer at AdvocAid in Sierra Leone, an organization that provides legal aid to girls and women. She works with and defends women and girls who find themselves in Sierra Leone’s criminal justice system. Previously, she worked as Legal Officer for Timap For Justice and Namati (SL). While there she assisted indigent people to litigate human rights related matters, and advocated for women’s and girls’ land rights.
Joy Obianuju Nnani
Managing Partner at Akaraiwe and Associates; Support Lawyer for Avocats Sans Frontières France (Nigeria)
Joy Obianuju Nnani is the Head of Chambers and Managing Partner at Akaraiwe and Associates, and a Support Lawyer for Avocats Sans Frontières France (Lawyers Without Borders) in Nigeria. As a Support Lawyer to Avocats Sans Frontières, she works on a death penalty project advocating for the abolition of the death penalty in Nigeria. She is trained to render free legal services to victims of human right abuses, especially to victims of torture by security agencies. She has also been involved in training the key actors in administration of the Nigerian criminal justice system on the principles of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Marcellinus Akamabe
Assistant Chief Legal Aid Officer at Legal Aid Council
Marcellinus Akamabe is Assistant Chief Legal Aid Officer at the Legal Aid Council in Nigeria. He primarily works on pro bono cases for indigent clients in Ebonyi State. He has also participated in Alternative Dispute Resolution seminars, human rights conferences, and programs on the administration of criminal justice. After graduating from law school, he worked with the Federal Ministry of Justice as part of the compulsory National Youth Service program. During this period, he engaged in the Community Development Service (CDS) with the Legal Aid Council.
Molly Nkosi
Senior Legal Aid Advocate at Malawi Legal Aid Bureau
Molly Nkosi is a Senior Legal Aid Advocate at the Legal Aid Bureau in Malawi, where she represents indigent clients and clients facing capital punishment. After graduating from law school, she joined the judiciary where she worked as a legal research assistant for two years. During that time, she gained a passion for issues concerning people’s rights to access justice, and joined the Legal Aid Bureau to address the gap that exists in this area in Malawi.
Nelson Sidney Ndeki
Programme Officer, Human and Peoples’ Rights Program at Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU)
Nelson Sidney Ndeki is a Programme Officer and Advocate for the Human and Peoples’ Rights Program of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) in Tanzania. He has practiced before the national courts of the United Republic of Tanzania, the East African Court of Justice, and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Nelson is a registered pro bono counsel under the Legal Aid Scheme of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights since 2016. His recent cases have involved the mandatory death penalty, unfair trials, freedom of expression, the rule of law and good governance.
Paul Assibi Abariga
Managing Partner at Abarigas Consult
Paul Assibi Abariga is a private legal practitioner and advocate of the Supreme Court of Ghana. Formerly a State Attorney in the Attorney General’s Department in Ghana, Paul now represents criminal defendants. His practice focuses on human rights and criminal law, and he believes in a reformative approach to sentencing: that all people must be given a second chance to reform and become better persons to the benefit of society as a whole.
Teresa Nyakonyu Mutua
Programme Manager, Access to Justice at International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya)
Teresa Nyakonyu Mutua is the Programme Manager for Access to Justice at the Kenya Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya), a human rights organization mandated to promote human rights, justice, and democracy in Kenya and around Africa. Being a litigator and working for ICJ Kenya, Teresa has firsthand experience of the gaps within the criminal justice system and works in spaces that advocate for reforms in various aspects of criminal justice. She is a strong proponent of the abolition of the death penalty and provides free legal aid to indigent clients. Teresa is a member of the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA Kenya), the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), and the Law Society of Kenya.