Coffee Time

Mary Njeri Kinyanjui

Mary Njeri Kinyanjui is a writer, researcher, teacher and volunteer
community organiser. She is a firm believer in social and economic
justice and self-reliance. She holds a PhD in Geography from Fitzwilliam
College at the University of Cambridge in the UK and is a senior
research fellow at the University of Nairobi’s Institute for Development
Studies. At the time of writing, she was a visiting associate at the
Five College Womens’ Studies Research Center in Mount Holyoke,
Massachusetts. She has researched economic informality and small
businesses, with particular focus on the role of grassroots and
indigenous institutions, as well as gender, trade justice and peasant
organisations, in the organisation of economic behaviour. Her current
research is on the positioning of women peasants, artisans and traders
in the global economy. Her publications include Women and the Informal
Economy in Urban Africa (Zed) and Vyama Institutions of Hope: Ordinary
People’s Market Coordination and Society Organization (Nsemia).