11th July 2025
10 min read
Our rights are non-negotiable: How reservations to the Maputo Protocol are holding back women’s rights in Africa
Deborah joined Equality Now in 2024 as Program Officer in the Legal Equality team, supporting the efforts of the Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights and the Global Campaign for Equality in Family Law in Africa.
She is a feminist human rights lawyer and a passionate social justice advocate. She holds a Master of Laws LLM degree in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa (with distinction) from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Human Rights & Sustainable Development from the University of Antwerp. She has worked/interned at the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions, the Centre for Human Rights, the Refugee Consortium of Kenya, and the Kenya Huma Rights Commission, among others.
Deborah’s advocacy is inspired by Zola Neale Hurston’s edict that “If you are silent about your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it” and guided by Audre Lorde’s words that “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
Currently based in Kenya, Deborah is available for interviews in English and also speaks basic French.
Outside of work she enjoys writing and travelling.