PROF. GILBERT KOKWARO

Prof. Kokwaro is a Professor of Health Systems Research at Strathmore University. He holds a PhD (Pharmacokinetics) from the University of Wales (UK), and undertook postdoctoral training in clinical pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is a Fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences.
He currently leads research and training (Masters and PhD) in Health Systems, focusing on Health Leadership and Governance; Pharmaceutical Commodity Supply Chain Management; Hospital Management; and aspects of health systems efficiency. He has also been a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Nairobi since 2000. Prof. Kokwaro has been the Chair of the Expert Committee on Clinical Trials (ECCT) at the Ministry of Health, Kenya, since 2009. In 2018, he was appointed by the then Cabinet Secretary for Health to be the Chairperson of the Advisory Panel on development of a Health Benefits Package for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for Kenya.
Regarding research capacity development in Kenya, Prof. Kokwaro, as the founder Director of the Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR) received funding of £10 million (approximately USD 18 million at that time) from the Wellcome Trust and DFID in 2007 for health research capacity strengthening in Kenya. Through this grant, CNHR established 4 Centres of Research Excellence, and supported several senior research leaders, postdoctoral fellows, PhD students and over 80 research interns in Kenya. His main areas of research are: systems approach to road safety, health systems strengthening and mathematical modelling (pharmacokinetics) of drugs in patients with malaria, HIV/AIDS and other tropical infectious diseases.