Mwangi S. Kimenyi

Mwangi S. Kimenyi, senior fellow and former director of the Africa Growth Initiative (AGI) at the Brookings Institution, passed away on 6 June 2015.

Prior to joining the Brookings Institution, Kimenyi was a faculty member of the Department of Economics at the University of Mississippi and the University of Connecticut, and he was also the Founding Executive Director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis. He was a Research Associate with the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford, and was a visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Kimenyi also served as member of the Board of Directors of Equity Bank, Kenya.

Kimenyi received his undergraduate degree at the University of Nairobi-Kenya, and completed graduate studies at Ohio University and George Mason University, where he obtained a Doctorate in Economics in 1986. He also studied for certificate programmes at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. He authored or co-edited 7 books, 6 policy monographs and was published widely in refereed journals and books. Kimenyi was a recipient of many honours and awards including co-winner of the Outstanding Research Award (2001) by Global Development Network, the Georgescu-Roegen Prize in Economics (1991), and was recognised by the Senate and House of the State of Mississippi for work on Public Transit. In 1994, Kimenyi was named by the Policy Review (Washington DC) among the top ten young market economists in the United States. During his tenure as Executive Director of the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, the institute was ranked the top policy institution in Africa and recognised as an international centre of excellence.