AshokaU and PhotoWings Self-Discovery Through Photography Final Project by Paige Morrow

1. Human Rights Defenders of
East Africa
Stories from the front line

2. Photography by Paige
Morrow

3. This project profiles human rights
defenders in East Africa and their
contributions to the achievement of social
justice and equality.
Activists lead human rights movements
around the world – they are on the
frontline of every demonstration, sit-in and
public interest law case.

4. Their opposition to government
corruption, police brutality, poverty
corporate-sanctioned environmental
disasters and other injustices create
pressure for reform.
Everywhere they work, human rights
defenders face risks of violence and
prosecution.

5. Origin of the Project
• This project came out of a fellowship at the Kenya
National Commission on Human Rights in Nairobi. We
worked closely with activists from throughout East
Africa and the Horn.
• AshokaU’s course offered a unique opportunity to
revisit the photos and consider what I had learned from
the process.

7. As I revisited the photos, I remembered the stories. Stories of individuals
who did not necessarily set out to become activists but were instead drawn
in by the situations in which they found themselves.

8. Despite the challenges they face in their day-to-day
work, the individuals share a resilience and dedication
that have led them in many cases to devote decades
to the advancement of their causes.

9. Hassan Omar Hassan
• A former Commissioner at the Kenya
National Commission on Human Rights,
Hassan is an advocate for human rights from
a Muslim perspective.
• A vocal activist since his university days at
Moi University in Kenya, Hassan became a
national leader in the human rights
movement by his early 30s.

10. George Kegoro
• George Kegoro is the executive
director of the Kenyan Section of
the International Commission of
Jurists. Kegoro is an advocate of
the High Court of Kenya and
served as Secretary to the
Commission of Inquiry into the
Post Election Violence in Kenya in
2008.
• For close to 30 years, Kegoro has
worked in the areas of legal
reform, advocacy and research.

11. L. Muthoni Wanyeki

12. Samwel Mohochi

13. Samwel Mohochi
• Samwel Mukira Mohochi is a Kenyan human rights
activist and attorney with extensive legal experience
in human rights litigation.
• He was inspired to get involved in the movement
after his father was arbitrarily arrested by the police
during a Church service and subsequently shot.
• Over the past 20 years, he has appeared in national
courts and before treaty monitoring bodies and the
United Nations Human Rights Council.

14. Stephen Gitahi Githuku

15. Leaders of Tomorrow

16. I met many young
adults around my age,
Text who had been involved
in the human rights
movement for years

17. Pauline Kimani

19. While revisiting
the photos that I
had taken years
previously, I was
touched even
more deeply by
the accounts of
these individuals.

20. They were
pretty
inspirational.

21. Their beliefs are not
always the same as
mine. They do not
always fight for what
I think should matter
or go about it the
way that I would.
But I admire their
willingness to go to
bat for their
convictions.