Justice Monica Mbaru

Trustee

Justice Monica Mbaru serves as a judge of Kenya’s Employment and Labour Relations Court.  Currently, she is the presiding Judge in Mombasa.

Justice Mbaru holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Nairobi and a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from the University of Pretoria. Currently, she is undertaking Doctoral Studies in Law (LLD) at the University of Nairobi, and research on disability and the law.

Previously, Justice Mbaru was a legal practitioner with a special focus on social justice and human rights, as well as minority and marginalised populations, gender, women, and persons with disabilities. She specialised in African human rights systems, particularly training on the application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Africa and Protocol on the African Charter on Women’s Rights in Africa.

She has worked for several institutions, including the HIVOS Foundation in East Africa, a funding agency and the Kenyan Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) an international network of jurists, the Legal Aid Centre (Kituo Cha Sheria), a human rights-based organisation undertaking legal aid in Kenya, and Legal Resources Foundation, focusing on paralegal training and community outreach.

Justice Mbaru has been a consultant with the Secretariat of the African Decade for Persons with Disabilities (SADPD) on policy, legal, and practice frameworks with the African Union (AU) regional body and the sub-regional block of the East African Community. She has been a member in the development of Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 (additional Principles adopted on 10 November 2017, Geneva), which affirm existing international legal standards as they apply to all persons on grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

She is a member of the African Judges Forum (AJF) and Africa Judges and Jurists Forum (AJJF).