Speaker details

Biography

Dr. Vellah Kedogo Kigwiru is a dynamic legal/political science scholar, practitioner, and policymaker with over 10 years of experience in technology, competition, human rights, data protection, artificial intelligence, and consumer protection enforcement in Africa and the European Union (EU). She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the University of Nairobi, a postgraduate diploma from the Kenya School of Law, and a PHD from the Technical University of Munich, Germany, awarded with high distinction (Magna cum Laude). She is currently a Research Fellow at the Chair for International Relations, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy (HfP) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), as well as a Friedrich Schiedel Fellow for Technology in Society at the TUM Think Tank at HfP. At the TUM, she has taught courses on ‘Competition Law and Policy in Emerging Markets’ and ‘Regulating Competition in Africa’s Digital Markets’. Vella’s work is informed by in-depth academic knowledge, empirical research and comparative work. She has undertaken qualitative and quantitative research, interviewing African competition agencies and legal practitioners on the enforcement of competition law at the national, regional, and AfCFTA levels, which has culminated in publications that have won international awards, such as the article titled ‘Supranational or Cooperative? Rethinking the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement Competition Protocol Institutional Design, which won the 2024 Concurrence Antitrust Writing Awards. By bridging theory and practice in competition law enforcement, she provides training and capacity-building on competition law for regional competition authorities and the AfCFTA Competition Protocol in COMESA, EAC, CEMAC, ECOWAS, and UEMOA.