Kenya’s nominee to the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) post, Nancy Karigithu sealed many firsts over her three-decade career within the maritime industry.
Nancy, a well-decorated scholar attained her first Degree in Law from the University of Nairobi, has a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law and a Master’s Degree in International Maritime Law from the IMO-International Maritime Law institute, (IMLI), Malta.
She has taken several professional courses to bolster her career, including the Short Course on Advanced Maritime Law, University of Southampton, UK, the Advanced Maritime Leaders Program (Singapore Maritime Academy) as well as the Advanced Management Program (Strathmore Business School).
Karigithu enjoyed a flying start to her career with a stint as a State Counsel in the Office of the Attorney General where she served for three years between 1987 and 1990 crossing over to the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) as a Senior Legal Officer.
The then-young lawyer scaled her way up the ladder to acting Assistant Corporation Secretary before resigning to set up a private legal consultancy firm.
As a private practitioner, she consulted widely for IMO in sub-Sahara Africa, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the East African Community and the African Union (AU).
This is during this period that she cemented her place and placed many footprints in the maritime transport sector as a Transport Expert for the African Union. She was engaged in advising governments across the region on independent maritime administrations and strengthening of maritime legal frameworks.
In 2006, she was appointed the Director-General and Chief Executive at the Kenya Maritime Authority where she handled the day-to-day management and operations.
In December 2015, Karigithu became the first Principal Secretary for the newly created State Department for Shipping and Maritime Affairs (SD&MA), in the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Urban Development.
Her main mandate here was promoting the national maritime and shipping industry, human resource development, and ship registration as well as developing a data centre and admiralty jurisdiction.
Among her main achievements at the ministry included guiding Kenya’s successful bid to host the Maritime Technology Cooperation Center for Africa (MTTC-Africa), the IMO/EU project aimed at building capacity in the African continent to mitigate climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from ships.
Her role within the IMO led to personal recognition and election as the Vice Chairman of the IMO’s Technical Cooperation Committee between 2009 and May 2015.
She currently sits on the Governing Council of the World Maritime University, based in Malmo, Sweden, the Board of Governors for the IMO International Maritime Training Institute, Malta and is also Vice President (Africa) for the International Maritime Satellite Organization.
In her career, she has also been a Member of the Law Society of Kenya, the Institute of Directors, and the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.
As part of her many firsts, Karigithu was involved in the setting up and launch of the Association of Women in the Maritime Sector in Eastern & Southern Africa (WOMESA), the first regional body bringing together women professionals within the maritime sector of 26 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.
She proceeded to serve for two terms as a Chairperson and continues to sit in the governing council. She was also instrumental in organizing the first-ever Heads of Maritime Administrations and Ship Registrars Conference held in Mombasa, Kenya in October 2013, which has since morphed into the Association of Maritime Administration in Africa.
Mrs. Karigithu also organized the first National Maritime Conference which took place in February 2015 and brought together key stakeholders of the international maritime industry to Kenya.
If elected to take up the post at IMO in July 2023, Karigithu will become the first African and first woman to hold the position.
Her main role will be mitigating climate change and greenhouse emissions from ships and other sea vessels in line with improving the blue economy.
