Angela Wachuka
Executive Director

Angela Wachuka is the Executive Director of Kwani Trust. She oversees the Trust’s daily operations and provides direction toward the achievement of the organisation’s mission, strategy, annual goals and objectives.

Angela joined Kwani Trust in February 2008 and previous to this, studied and worked in England for 6 years. As a Freelancer for the BBC’s African News and Current Affairs Department, she worked as a Broadcasting Assistant on both Focus on Africa and Network Africa Radio Programmes, and on the quarterly Focus on Africa Magazine. Angela holds a BA in Anthropology & Law from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) and has held various research-oriented posts at the London Borough of Lambeth, the Association of British Insurers and the Centre for African Policy & Peace Strategy (CAPPS) in London.

Billy Kahora
Managing Editor

Billy Kahora is the Managing Editor of Kwani? He also writes fiction and completed an MS.c in Creative Writing with distinction at the University of Edinburgh as a Chevening Scholar in 2007. Before that Billy studied and worked in South Africa for 8 years and in between worked as an Editorial Assistant for All Africa.com in Washington D.C. He has a Bachelor of Journalism degree and post-graduate diploma in Media Studies from Rhodes University. His short story, ‘Treadmill Love’, was highly commended by the 2007 Caine Prize judges. He has recently edited ‘Kenya Burning’, a visual narrative of the Kenya post-elections crisis published by the GoDown Arts Centre and Kwani Trust in March 2009. His extended feature, ‘The True Story of David Munyakei’ on Kenya’s biggest whistleblower has been developed into a non-fiction novella and released by Kwani Trust in July 2009. Billy was a Regional judge for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

To read Billy Kahora’s Editorial from Kwani? 05 Part 2: ‘Beyond The Vote: Revelation & Conversation’, the second volume of a collection of testimonials, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays and photography in response to the 2007 elections and its aftermath. Click here

To watch the trailer of Soul Boy, a Kenyan film written by Billy, click here

Merab Gisiora
Finance Officer

Merab joined Kwani Trust in May 2011, and previously worked for the  Kenya Girl Guides Association as a Finance Officer and the Poverty Eradication Network as an accountant. She brings to the trust her experience in Accounting, Auditing, Administration and Human Resource Management. Merab holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Accounting Option) from Daystar University with a CPA II qualification and is currently pursuing a Postgraduate diploma in Human Resource from the Institute of Human Resource, Nairobi.

Mike Mburu
Sales & Distribution

Mike Mburu is in charge of Sales and Distribution. He has a diploma in Marketing and has been involved in the arts since 2003. He was previously involved in distribution of local music and managing various artists before moving to the distribution of books and local films. He has coordinated the Kenya Cine Week which evolved to become the Kenya International Film Festival.

Mike says:
My love for the arts is beyond words, what I see is a bright future in the arts whereby Kenyan artists will eat from their sweat and hard work to make people appreciate art. My dream is marketing artists and making the society believe and love arts and take art as part of their lives and be sure they can't do anything without it.

Wambui Thuku
Administration Manager

Wambui joined Kwani Trust in April 2008 as the Administration Assistant. Previously,  she worked for a Nairobi-based law firm as a Personal Assistant to the Litigation partner. Wambui is a qualified secretary and has a diploma in customer care.

Sheba Hirst
Kwani? Litfest Director

An artist at heart and spirit Sheba has been a TV host, program manager and is now the Executive Producer at Rainmaker Limited. Coming from a family of artists, with a mother who was a production manager at Oxford University and a dad who ran a production company with her mother as well, it was inevitable that she should end up in the arts. Stemming from a background in political science, her activist mind has helped shape the direction of her work immensely.