Nic Cheeseman is Professor of Democracy, University of Birmingham and the former Director of the African Studies Centre, Oxford University. He mainly works on democracy, elections, and development and has conducted fieldwork in a range of African countries. His articles have won a number of prizes including the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). He is also the author or editor of ten books. He is the founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics, and an advisor and writer for Kofi Annan's African Progress Panel. In recognition of this academic and public contribution, the Political Studies Association of the UK awarded him the prestigious Joni Lovenduski Prize for outstanding professional achievement by a midcareer scholar in 2019. His analysis has appeared in The Economist, Le Monde, NY Times, and BBC, amongst others. Gabrielle Lynch is Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Warwick. Her research on Kenya has focused on ethnic identity and politics, elections and democratisation, and transitional justice. She is the author or co-editor of several books and more than 30 articles and book chapters. She is deputy chair of the Review of African Political Economy editorial working group, a member of Democratization's editorial board and Vice-President/Research of the British Institute of Eastern Africa. Gabrielle wrote a twice monthly column for the Saturday Nation (the Saturday edition of Kenya's leading national newspaper) from April 2014 to March 2018 when she stood down alongside 7 other independent columnists in protest at "the loss of editorial independence and media freedom" at the Nation Media Group. From November 2015 to January 2017 she also wrote a twice monthly column for The East African (the main regional newspaper). Karuti Kanyinga is Research Professor of Development Studies, University of Nairobi where he is the current Director of the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), and serves in the Board of Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR). He has published extensively and is renowned for his contributions to scholarship and knowledge on governance and development in Kenya and Africa in general. He has written extensively on ethnicity and inequality; civil society and development, politics of land rights, and political change. In addition to contribution to scholarship, Karuti served as an advisor to the Kofi Annan Panel of Eminent African Personalities where he advised on monitoring the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR). He is a frequent commentator on governance and political development in Kenya and Africa in general. He wrote a regular column in Kenya's largest-circulation newspaper, Sunday Nation, and continues to make commentaries on major events.
