Awino Okech

Awino Okech
Okech in 2010
BornJanuary 1980 (age 46)
CitizenshipKenyan
EducationUniversity of Cape Town
University of Nairobi
OccupationAcademic
EmployerSOAS University of London
Known forFeminist Centre for Racial Justice
TitleProfessor of Feminist and Security Studies

Awino Okech (born January 1980)[1] is a Kenyan academic, feminist and professor based at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).[2] Her research and teaching intersects gender, sexuality, conflict, and security studies.[2] She is an adjunct educator and a senior visiting fellow of African Leadership Centre, King's College London, and a member of the editorial advisory board of Feminist Africa.[3][4]

Early life and education

Awino Okech grew up in Kisumu, Kenya, and her mother was an educator.[5] Okech has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, followed by a master's degree and a PhD from the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town.[5]

Career

Okech is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London, where she co-convenes the Gender, Leadership and Society module on the Security, Leadership and Society MSc programme.[3][4]

Okech is based at SOAS, in the Centre for Gender Studies, teaching and researching the nexus between gender, sexuality, conflicts and security studies.[6][2][7]

Okech is the founding Director of the Feminist Centre for Racial Justice at SOAS University of London, which focuses on racial justice and feminist imaginaries rooted in the majority world.[2][8]

She is also a member of the editorial advisory board of Feminist Africa, a peer-reviewed journal from the African Gender Institute, based at the University of Cape Town.[4][9] Okech is also a member of the African Security Sector Network,[10] a pan-African scholars and policy advocates network focused on security sector reform.[4]

In October 2025, Okech was appointed Professor of Feminist and Security Studies at SOAS University of London. She delivered her inaugural lecture titled Feminist worldmaking: On knowledge infrastructures and social transformation on 23 October 2025.[11]

Selected publications

  • Awino Okech & Shereen Essof & Laura Carlsen, (2022). Movement building responses to COVID-19: lessons from the JASS mobilisation fund, Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer; Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 249-269, April.
  • Protest and Power: Gender, State and Society in Africa (Editor): Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 ISBN 9783030463427
  • 'Boundary anxieties and infrastructures of violence: Somali identity in post-Westgate Kenya.' Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal. pp. 1-17 (2018)
  • Gendered security: Between ethno-nationalism and constitution making in Kenya (2013)
  • Dealing with Asymmetrical Conflict: Lessons from Kenya (2015)
  • Women and Security Governance in Africa, ed. Funmi Olonisakin & Awino Okech. Oxford: Pambazuka Press, 2011. ISBN 9781906387891

References

  1. ^ "Awino OKECH personal appointments". Find and update company information – Companies House. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d "Awino Okech – SAGE Publications Author Profile". SAGE Publications. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Prof. Awino Okech". African Leadership Centre. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d "Awino Okech". King’s College London. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Awino Okech - African Gender Institute". agi.ac.za. Archived from the original on 12 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  6. ^ Clarkson, Ed. "In conversation with Dr Awino Okech". Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  7. ^ "Awino Okech | Associate Professor In Political Sociology, SOAS, University Of London". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  8. ^ "Leadership – Feminist Centre for Racial Justice". FCRJ. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  9. ^ "Episode 5: FCRJ Leadership Series – Awino Okech, FCRJ – Feminist Centre for Racial Justice (FCRJ)". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  10. ^ assnadmin (2014-03-12). "Beyond Westgate: Security and Accountability in Kenya | ASSN". Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  11. ^ "Inaugural Lecture Series: Professors Awino Okech and Dan Plesch". SOAS University of London. Retrieved 27 October 2025.

See also

  • Njoki Wamai – Kenyan political scientist and scholar of peace and security in Africa
  • Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi – Nigerian feminist activist, writer, and co-founder of the African Women's Development Fund
  • Eka Ikpe – Nigerian development economist and Director of the African Leadership Centre at King's College London
  • Toyin Ajao – Nigerian scholar and founder of Ìmọ́lẹ̀ of Afrika Centre, focused on restorative healing of intergenerational trauma
  • Funmi Olonisakin – Founding Director of the African Leadership Centre and scholar of leadership and peacebuilding in Africa
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