Nancy W. Karigithu

Special Envoy and Advisor on Blue Economy at Executive Office of the President, Kenya

Speaker

Amb. Karigithu is Kenya’s Special Envoy for Maritime and Blue Economy and the immediate former Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for Shipping and Maritime Affairs in the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs. She is presently the Advisor on Blue Economy in the Executive Office of the President.She holds a Bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Nairobi and a master’s degree in international maritime law from the IMO International Maritime Law Institute, Malta. Before her appointment as PS she was the Director General (DG) of Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) where she served for nine (9) years. She also served as the Chair of the IMO Technical Cooperation Committee for three terms and currently sits on the Board of Governors of the World Maritime University (WMU), based in Malmo, Sweden, and the IMO- International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI).She joined the Kenyan Bar in 1984 and has a working experience of 38 years, 34 of them in the maritime industry. As the first substantive DG of KMA, she led in updating the national legal framework for maritime activities in Kenya, while advising the Government on maritime issues.

Previous work experience includes extensive consultancy for IMO in Africa, the East African Community and the African Union (AU). Between 2004 and 2005, she served as the Maritime Transport Expert at the African Union, engaged in and advising governments in setting up and strengthening of independent maritime administrations.She championed the setting up and launch of the Association of Women in the Maritime Sector in Eastern & Southern Africa (WOMESA), the first regional body to bring together women professionals in the maritime sector of 26 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, in support of the integration of women in the industry.Amb. Karigithu organized the first ever Heads of Maritime Administrations and Ship Registrars Conference in Africa, which has since transformed into the Association of Maritime Administration in Africa (AAMA). Established pursuant to Article 5 of the African Maritime Transport Charter, AAMA brings together all the Maritime Administrations in Africa to collaborate on issues of capacity building, technology, peer to peer standard setting and information sharing. She has previously worked as a legal expert for the European Union (EU) project, Critical Maritime Routes Project, aimed at enhancing maritime situational awareness in waters within the Western Indian Ocean and the improvement of safety, security and environmental protection. She recently championed the development of IMO Guidelines for the Prevention and Suppression of the Smuggling of Wildlife on Ships Engaged in International Maritime Traffic, which were adopted during the 46th Session of the IMO FAL Committee held in May 2022.2Amb.

Karigithu has championed the decarbonization of maritime and shipping in Africa and until recently Chaired the Steering Committee of the MTCC-Africa, an EU/IMO partnership geared towards capacity building for the reduction of green-house gas emissions from the continent’s shipping sectorIn recognition of her distinguished service to the international maritime sector, the World Maritime University bestowed Amb. Karigithu with an honorary fellowship on 3rd November, 2019 in Malmo, Sweden. In 2022, Amb Karigithu was featured in the 13th Edition of Lloyd’s List of 100 Persons with influence in the shipping industry globally. This is consistent with her nomination by the Global CEO Magazine of 2017 as Africa’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government, and her nomination by the Chairperson of the African Union as Africa’s Woman of the Year in November 2018.It is based on her long illustrious career in the maritime industry that the Government of Kenya nominated and the African Union endorsed Amb. Karigithu, as a candidate to vie for the post of Secretary General of the IMO during elections slated for July 2023.