Board of Directors
The KNBS Board of Directors
Dr. Daniel Mwirigi M’Amanja was appointed Chairperson of the Board of Directors, in January 2025. Having begun his career as a Statistics Officer with the then Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Dr. M’Amanja boasts more than 30 years practice in Economics, Fiscal, Monetary, and Exchange Rate policy formulation and implementation, Macroeconomic Modelling, and, Regional Integration. Prior to his appointment, Dr. M’Amanja served as Deputy Director, Research at the Central Bank of Kenya. He has held several portfolios in the Ministry of Finance, such as Principal Economist in the Economic Affairs Department and Strategies and Policy Analysis Division, as well as being a Budget Analyst and Trainer.
Dr M’Amanja holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham.
Dr. Daniel Mwirigi M’Amanja
Board Chairman
Director General
Dr. Macdonald George Obudho serves as the Director General of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, where he has dedicated his career to promoting excellence in the development and production of high-quality official statistics in Kenya. With a wealth of experience in top management roles spanning over seventeen years, he has led various technical teams in conducting population and housing censuses, registration and profiling of farmers, and designing and executing numerous sample surveys.
Dr. Obudho is a respected authority in the field of statistics, playing a key role in the development and implementation of statistical methods and standards, statistics policies, laws, and production, as well as the dissemination and utilization of statistical data. His leadership as Director of Population and Social Statistics was instrumental in overseeing the successful execution of the first digital census during the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of statistics and his innovative approach to data collection, he has been honored with two State Commendation Awards: Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) in 2023 and Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS) in 2019. He is a registered member of the Kenya National Statistical Society. Macdonald holds a PhD degree in Applied Statistics, a Master of Science degree in Statistics, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, all from the esteemed Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
He has a number of certificates under his name that arise from short courses, workshops and seminars attended both locally and internationally.
Dr. Obudho serves as a Board Director of Tourism Research Institute, Hazina SACCO, among other boards
Dr. Macdonald George Obudho EBS, MBS
Director General
Board Member
Dr. Mohamed A. Sheikh is the Director General for the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), a Semi-Autonomous Government Agency under The National Treasury and Planning. He previously served as the Head of Family Health Department, Ministry of Health Kenya.
He is a Medical Doctor and hold a master degree in International Public Health and a second Master in Maternal and Child health.A seasoned civil servant, Dr Sheikh, has served with excellence having had over sixteen years of experience in senior level health management systems and leadership. As the head of the department of family health, he oversaw the coordination and development of policies, strategies, guidelines and capacity building in Reproductive, Maternal, newborn, adolescent health and nutrition in the country.
Dr. Sheikh is credited for the introduction of innovative interventions including the breast milk bank being piloted in Kenya, use of chlorohexidine for cord care, introduction of amoxicillin DT for treatment of pneumonia in children and introduction of new vaccines. These great ideas have greatly contributed to reduction in maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
While serving as the provincial director of medical services, North Eastern Province of Kenya, he contributed immensely to the improvement of maternal and child health indicators through introduction of innovative programmes within the region. Dr. Sheikh serves as board director of the Anti- Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Kenya, He is also an advisor of a multi donor trust fund for GFF.
Dr. Mohamed A. Sheikh
Board Member
Benson Kiriga is the Director, Macroeconomic Planning in the State Department for Economic Planning. He has been a Senior Policy Analyst and HOD in the Macroeconomics Department in KIPPRA. He is undertaking PhD studies in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He has previously worked as a Senior Economist in the Ministry of Finance and in the Ministry of Planning and National Development. His areas of research interest include public finance, macromodelling and macroeconomic policy research. He has been involved in preparation of various Government of Kenya policy documents and is quite experienced in the Central Government fiscal operations.
Mr. Benson Kiriga
Board Member
Board Member
Alternate to the Principal Secretary, National Treasury, Samuel is a Chief Economist in Macro and Fiscal Department of the National Treasury and Planning.
Apart from being a Board Member of KNBS, he also represents the CS, National Treasury and Planning at Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (JKF) Board of Directors.
He holds an M.A in Economic Policy Management degree from Makerere University, Uganda and B.A in Economics from University of Nairobi. Besides the above, he has attended Strategic Leadership Development Programme (SLDP) at Kenya School of Government and several courses in Financial and Strategic Management, Leadership and Policy Formulation locally and abroad, and has also undertaken a training on Corporate Governance under Mwongozo facilitated ICS and SCAC.
Mr. Samuel Wambugu
Board Member
Ms Rose Towett, a demographer with over 15 years’ experience in monitoring, evaluation and research has a passion for data-driven insights and evidence-based decision-making. She currently works as an independent M&E consultant. Before transitioning into consultancy, Rose worked for over 5 years with mothers2mothers Kenya, where she was responsible for the design and implementation of an integrated planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning system for projects with the aim of facilitating decision-making, promoting accountability, and strengthening results-oriented management.
She has also worked for other donor-funded and development organisations including Population Services International/Kenya and African Population & Health Research Centre. Rose holds a first class honors in Bachelor of Education (Mathematics) and a Master’s of Science (Population Studies) both from the University of Nairobi. She has also undertaken M&E professional course: Leadership and Managing for Impact: Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Ms Rose Towett
Board Member
Board Member
Francis M Nkako is a graduate of the National Defence College-Kenya, holder of MSc (EIA) from the University of Wales-UK and BSc rom Nairobi University-Kenya. He has attended several short courses, including on corporate governance, security and natural resource management. He is registered as a Lead Expert in EIA for purposes of carrying out environmental assessments and audits in Kenya by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).
Francis has 30 years’ experience mainly in the environmental management; rural development, integrated development. Others Conservation and natural resources management, wildlife/Forests/ water towers management (policy, legal, security and enforcement aspects), tourism; protected area (parks and reserve) management and human-wildlife conflicts and institutional management.
He has successfully worked with projects funded World Bank Tana GEF, USAID, WWF Traffic (illegal trade) EWALS/KFWG/UNEP WWF, British Army, the Royal Netherlands Embassy (Tana Delta), JICA, He among others. He has interacted and collaborated with various development partners, government departments, and local communities, NGOs, policy makers, CBOs and various other stakeholder agencies.
He has gained significant experience in river basin management and integrated development through the Tana Delta projects, Tana River Basin through the Tana GEF projects, Integrated river basin development as the Managing Director -ENSDA e.g. Mara River Basin with WWF, Ewaso Ngiro River basin, Lake Naivasha, Nakuru, among others..
He has experience in policy, organizational development; participatory methodologies to development as well as rights and community based approaches to development. He has extensive experience managing and working on projects related to community development, natural resource management and pro-poor development strategies.
He is also a Consultant on policy, environment, NRM and development, having undertaken several consultancies rover the years. Client include WWF (Policy review USAID funded Mara River Basin project) for EAC/LVBC, Tetra Tech/ARD USA (on regional Proposal Research: East Africa – Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research and Economic Development (PREPARED) for EAC/LVBC, and FAO on policy review GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems) implemented by National Museums of Kenya, private sector among others.
Mr. Francis M. Nkako
Board Member
Board Member
Molu Tepo is a community development specialist with practical experience of working with pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and grassroots communities.
He has professional interest in strengthening the capacities of the community institutions to cushion themselves against hazards facing them from time to time; drought, floods, Resource Based Conflicts, Human and Livestock Diseases, Desert Locust. The disasters resulting from the hazards have become frequent partly due to the negative impact of Climate Change. He has worked as a facilitator, community development practitioner, and project/programme manager for non-profit organizations in Kenya.
He is currently the Executive Director at Merti Integrated Development Programme (MID-P). He is Secretary to the Board of Directors (BOD) and executing the decisions of BOD. MID-P is a local NGO working in Isiolo County with focus on; Sustainable Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Livelihoods, local Governance and Youth Education and Empowerment. He convenes Isiolo County Civil Society Network.
He has provided Voluntary services to different community institutions. He was a member of the Board of Governors of schools. He was a member of the Board of Commissioners of Kenya Meat Commissioner. He is currently the Chairperson of the Isiolo County Education Board (CEB). CEB is mandated by The Basic Education Act to manage education in a County.
Molu previously worked with the Teachers Service Commission, Garba Tula Development Organization, Minority Rights Group International (MRG) as a Project Consultant for EU funded Governance Project, Catholic Organisation for Relied and Development Aid (Cordaid) as Project Manager. He is currently a Master candidate, Kampala International University. He holds a Bachelor of Education degree from Egerton University.