Doctor Mukhisa Kituyi of Kenya became Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on 1 September 2013.
Education
Doctor Kituyi obtained a Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, graduating with honours and a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology, a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies and a Diploma in Science, Comparative Production Systems, all from the University of Bergen, Norway.
Career
Immediately prior, Mr. Kituyi was Chief Executive of the Kenya Institute of Governance, based in Nairobi. He served as Kenya"s Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007.
Prior to joining Parliament, Doctor Kituyi worked as Director at the African Centre for Technology Studies (Acts of the Apostles), Nairobi and as Programme Officer at the Norwegian Agency for International Development (North America Air Defense), also in Nairobi.
He was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 1992, and was twice re-elected. He was Kenya"s Minister of Trade and Industry from 2002 to 2007.
He also served as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (American College of Physicians) Group of States, and was lead negotiator for Eastern and Southern African ministers during the European Union-American College of Physicians Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations. He was convenor of the agriculture negotiations carried out at the World Trade Organization"s Sixth Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong, China in 2005.
From 2011 to 2012, he was a consultant for the African Union Commission, where he helped to develop the structure for a pan-African free trade area.
Immediately prior to becoming Secretary-General, Mr. Kituyi was Chief Executive of the Kenya Institute of Governance, based in Nairobi. The Institute is a think tank and advocacy organization that focuses on linking academic research and the development of public policy.
During 2012, Mr.
Kituyi also served as a non-resident fellow of the Africa Growth Initiative of the Brookings Institution, Washington, District of Columbia He was a resident scholar there in 2011. He was first elected to Parliament on a Ford-Kenya ticket in 1992, becoming the Opposition Chief Whip. His predecessor was the late veteran politician, Elijah Mwangale.
He was re-elected in 1997 and 2002.
However, in the 2007 General Elections, he lost to newcomer David Simiyu Eseli of Ford-Kenya.
Politics
Kituyi left Ford-Kenya and joined Narc-Kenya and later New Ford Kenya, a breakaway party formed by cabinet minister Soita Shitanda.
Membership
From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Kituyi was a member of a team of experts advising the presidents of the nations of the East African Community on how to establish more effective regional economic links.