Nanjala Nyabola


H. Nanjala Nyabola is a writer, political analyst, and activist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Nyabola writes extensively about African society and politics, technology, international law, and feminism for academic and non-academic publications. Her first book Digital Democracy, Analogy Politics was described as "a must read for all researchers and journalists writing about Kenya today".
Nyabola held a Rhodes Scholarship at the University of Oxford in 2009, was part of the 2017 inaugural cohort of Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellows, and was a 2017 Logan Nonfiction Program Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good.
Nyabola sits on the board of Amnesty International Kenya.

Education

Nyabola holds multiple degrees in politics and law:
Nyabola writes extensively about African society and politics, in particular Kenya, alongside discussions of technology, international law, and feminism. Her work has featured in publications including African Arguments, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, New African, The New Humanitarian, The New Inquiry, New Internationalist, OkayAfrica and World Policy Journal.
Her 2014 Al Jazeera opinion piece 'Why do Western media get Africa wrong?' generated much discussion, including on the BBC World Service and in a 2014 McGill University course syllabus on Western representations of Africa in media and pop culture.
Her 2010 The Guardian opinion piece 'Why, as an African, I took a Rhodes scholarship' was chosen as one of the 5 Best Wednesday Columns in The Atlantic.

Public speaking

Nyabola is a frequent contributor to the BBC World Service, particularly on issues around Kenyan politics and technology.
Nyabola is a prolific speaker at universities including discussions of African politics, specifically Kenya, migration, feminism, and the digital at the University of Edinburgh, SOAS, Stanford University.
Nyabola has been an invited speaker at numerous international conferences on the politics of the digital, including 2018 and 2019, the 2018 Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, and the 2019 RightsCon in Tunis.

Works

Books

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics in Kenya
Published in 2018 by Zed Books to positive reviews from LSE Review of Books, Duncan Green, Business Daily Africa, between the lines podcast from the Institute of Development Studies and the Africa Oxford Initiative podcast at the University of Oxford. She has given book talks at numerous universities including the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, the University of the Witwatersrand, School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, Stanford University Cener on Philanthropy and Civil Society and the University of Cambridge. The book is cited in a Financial Times article on the fight to control Africa's digital revolution.
Where Women Are: Gender & The 2017 Kenyan Elections
Published in 2018 by Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung and Twaweza Communications Ltd. and co-edited with Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle.

Book Chapters

Surviving the Slaughter: The Ordeal of a Rwandan Refugee in Zaire
Media Perspectives: Social Media and New Narratives: Kenyans Tweet Back