Mary Njenga

Mary Njenga is a Bioenergy Research Scientist at CIFOR-ICRAF based in Nairobi, Kenya and a Visiting Lecturer at Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies, University of Nairobi. 

Njenga undertook a Post Doctorate in Bioenergy at ICRAF between 2014 and 2017 and holds a PhD in Management of Agroecosystems and Environment (2013) and an MSc in Biology of Conservation (2008) from the University of Nairobi and a BSC in Natural Resource Management (1996) from Egerton University. Her research interest is in sustainable and efficient biomass energy production and use systems, and their connections to environmental management including climate change, livelihoods and rural-urban linkages. She is also greatly interested in natural resource management in urban and rural settings, and adaptive technology development and transfer including gender integration and co-learning through transdisciplinary approaches. She joined in 2010 as a PhD research fellow. 

From 2002–2009, Njenga was a research officer and deputised for the SSA regional coordinator for Urban Harvest, a systemwide initiative of the CGIAR on urban agriculture convened by International Potato Centre (CIP). Between 1998–2002, Njenga worked on community based natural resource management (CBNRM) in drylands in Laikipia with the Semi-Arid Rural Development Programme of SNV and Natural Resource Monitoring, Modelling and Management (NRM3) of Laikipia Research Programme (LRP), currently CENTRAD. Between 2001–2002, she worked as a consultant for International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) on rural livelihoods in South Nyanza and Bomet, Kenya.