Gladwell Otieno is the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), a governance and anti-corruption civil society organisation. AfriCOG convenes the Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ) coalition, established to address post-election violence and its aftermath. Gladwell has worked as the Executive Director of Transparency International (TI) Kenya, and the TI Secretariat in Berlin, and the Institute for Security Studies, South Africa. She studied Political Science and French at the University of Massachusetts and the Free University of Berlin. She chairs the Board of Trustees of the African Leadership Centre and is also a board member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
"Civil society's role and legitimacy has been under intense attack by increasingly undemocratic governments. We should see this as a recognition of our impact and potential.”
"Money and power, and the search for both, are currently inextricably linked. Breaking this nexus requires our renewed commitment to the struggle for political accountability and deeper democratisation."