About the researcher
A public policy researcher working at the intersection of policy, agriculture, food systems and digital rights in Africa.
Michael Kipkorir Kemboi is a Kenyan public policy researcher whose work examines agricultural policy implementation, agri-food resilience, food security, nutrition policy, agricultural trade, sustainability and digital rights.
His research is united by a single question: why do well-intended policies so often fail to reach the households they are designed to protect, and what institutional conditions allow some agricultural systems to do better than others. He approaches that question empirically, combining household-level evidence with policy analysis across Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia and cross-national samples. The work asks not only what governments decide, but how political commitment, coordination and implementation capacity shape what actually happens on the ground.
He is currently a doctoral candidate in Public Policy at the University of Nairobi, holding a doctoral scholarship awarded by PASGR (the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Alongside the doctorate he teaches as a part-time lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of Eldoret — introductory and intermediate macroeconomics and economic statistics — and brings eight years of experience in research and policy analysis, currently as a researcher and public policy analyst with ResearchCannon. Earlier consulting years with Focus Business & Research Associates produced more than one hundred completed research projects for government, NGO and private-sector clients. He reviews for Cogent Economics & Finance and is a member of the International Public Policy Association.
A newer strand of the agenda extends the same questions to digital life. As lead researcher for the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), he directed a national study of how journalism and law schools integrate technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) into their curricula — published as KICTANet Report No. 34 — and he has presented conference work on countering political disinformation through AI-based learning platforms and youth social-media literacy.
Publications
His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including the British Food Journal, the Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Ecology of Food and Nutrition, Health Science Reports, the African Journal of Economic Review, the International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management and Developing Country Studies. Each publication entry on this site links directly to its DOI or publisher record, so that readers always reach the canonical version of record rather than an aggregator mirror. Research on food insecurity in Liberia has also been drawn on in public commentary published by The Conversation and covered by specialist agricultural media, and his commissioned work for KICTANet is published in the network’s report series.
Education
He is a doctoral candidate in Public Policy at the University of Nairobi (2022 to date), supported by a doctoral scholarship from PASGR and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He holds a Master of Research and Public Policy from the same university, and a BA in Business Studies with IT from Maseno University (2012–2016).
His 2019 master’s research project, The Contribution of Trade Liberalization to Agricultural Growth in Kenya, is available through the University of Nairobi’s digital repository. The project estimated the short- and long-run contribution of trade liberalization to agricultural growth in Kenya and remains the foundation of his ongoing interest in agricultural trade and markets — an interest later carried into journal articles published in 2020.
Identifiers and profiles
His work is unambiguously attributable online through ORCID 0000-0002-9862-0819, which publisher records associate with his name and University of Nairobi affiliation. A continuously updated publication record is maintained on ResearchGate (where his profile is listed under Michael Kemboi, Research Director at ResearchCannon) and on Google Scholar.
Positions, service and awards
Since June 2021 he has taught as a part-time lecturer in the School of Economics at the University of Eldoret, and since October 2018 he has worked as a researcher and public policy analyst with ResearchCannon. He has served as a peer reviewer for Cogent Economics & Finance since November 2022, contributed to national learner-assessment fieldwork with the Kenya National Examinations Council, and directed the TFGBV curriculum study for KICTANet as lead researcher and curriculum consultant in 2025. He is a member of the International Public Policy Association, and his doctoral studies are supported by a PASGR & Carnegie Corporation of New York scholarship.
Citation, readership and download metrics change continuously, and any number published here would be out of date almost immediately. Instead, this site links to the live records on ORCID, ResearchGate and Google Scholar, so that readers always see current metrics at the source.
The research trajectory, in five moves
From a single question about trade and growth in Kenya, to a comparative research programme on policy, resilience and food systems — across three countries, a global sample, and now the digital sphere.
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2019Foundations
Trade and agricultural growth
The starting point: a master’s research project at the University of Nairobi estimating the short- and long-run contribution of trade liberalization to agricultural growth in Kenya — econometric grounding for everything that followed.
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2024Field evidence
Coping and food insecurity
Field-level focus on the households policy often misses: how female-headed agricultural households in Liberia experience food insecurity, and which coping strategies actually protect livelihoods. Published in the British Food Journal and drawn on in public commentary.
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2025New territory
The digital policy turn
Lead researcher for KICTANet’s national study of how journalism and law schools integrate technology-facilitated gender-based violence into their curricula — document review, a digital survey and key informant interviews across Kenyan universities, published as Report No. 34 with a skills-training framework for educators and policy recommendations for universities.
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2026Widening lens
Food systems, diets and resilience
Three studies at once: who is getting resilience policy right in Kenyan agriculture; what shapes diet quality among women in Tanzanian fishing households; and how national policies worldwide aim to improve micronutrient intake through school meals.
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NowDirection
The doctoral chapter
Since 2022 the agenda has been anchored by doctoral research in Public Policy at the University of Nairobi, supported by a PASGR & Carnegie Corporation of New York scholarship — pushing toward sustainability at scale: how agri-food systems can remain productive, inclusive and resilient for the long run.