I.K
She has over 10 years’ experience as a human rights lawyer working in Kenya. She currently works as the East and Horn of Africa Representative for Protection International, an organization that strives to have an enabling environment where human rights defenders can continue to do their work safely through capacity building based on a developed manual, research and advocacy with duty bearers and stakeholders. Protection International has offices in Asia- Thailand and Indonesia, Latin America- Colombia and Guatemala, Europe- Brussels -HO and Africa- Burundi, DRC and Kenya. http://protectioninternational.org/
She previously worked with InformAction, (http://informaction.tv/) a Kenyan organisation headed up by Maina Kiai (immediate former Special Rapporteur on the Freedoms of Assembly and Association) that uses documentaries as its main tool in its social justice activities. She also worked with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute; a Swedish Academic and Capacity Building organisation, (http://rwi.lu.se/) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (www.knchr.org).
These experience has given her a wealth of experience in human rights, postelection violence and capacity building and an opportunity to work in Kenya, Burundi and Southern Africa.
She holds an LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation from the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights and an LLB with Human Resource Management from Keele University, England.
She is a member of the Kenya Bar Association; Kenya Peace; Truth and Justice Network; Human Rights Education Associates; INPROL; INEEE and New tactics in Human Rights. Ivy is a torch bearer for the Dr. Choksey Albinism Foundation which strongly advocates for children with albinism to be interrelated into mainstream education systems. http://www.albinismfoundation.com/. This saw her appointed to two schools Board of Management in Kiambu County in 2015- St. Andrews Secondary School in Ndenderu and Kiambaa Secondary School
During her LLM, she discovered that she liked to write about things she was passionate about, although time does always make it possible to write as often as she would like, she has managed to write articles on Right to Education and matters Terrorism
http://www.ineesite.org/en/resources/the-impact-ofterrorism-and-counter-terrorism-on-the-right-to-education, Kenyan Jurisprudence http://africlaw.com/category/contributors/ivy-kihara/.
She is a Board member of the African Great Lakes Human Rights Defenders Protection Fund. She also represents all the Protection International Representatives from 7 offices worldwide as a co- Chair of the Advisory Mechanism to the Protection International Board of Directors. In 2016 Ivy was invited to be a mentor in the Young African Leaders initiative.
Other than that, Ivy is passionate about education, setting up systems and structures and wishes to one day transition into working in government, she is committed to service to her community and recently began working with the Art of Music Foundation http://artofmusic.co.ke/ as a volunteer consultant -resource mobilisation. This foundation teaches and encourages children and the youth in underprivileged parts of Kenya to engage in learning to play musical instruments with an aim of changing their lives.
She is an avid reader, likes to cook and enjoys listening and collecting music. She also enjoys walking and makes a habit of walking at night whenever she travels to countries where this is possible. Ivy being single with no children yet, she dotes on her 2 nephews and niece. She is seriously contemplating getting a Labrador retriever as she loves this breed of dogs