Stellah Wairimu Bosire
Dr. Stellah Wairimu Bosire is a feminist, medical doctor, lawyer, and global health practitioner with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of health equity, gender justice, and civic space across Africa. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Africa Center for Health Systems and Gender Justice, a Pan-African feminist organization advancing intersectional advocacy, policy change, and inclusive governance to dismantle structural health and gender inequities. Her educational background includes a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B), both from the University of Nairobi; an MBA in Healthcare Management from Strathmore Business School; and a Master of Science in Global Health Policy from the University of London- LSHTM. Dr. Bosire has led high-impact initiatives in over a dozen African countries, supporting feminist movements, LGBTQ+ and Indigenous organizing, and health systems transformation. She has held influential leadership roles including Co-Executive Director at UHAI-EASHRI, CEO of the Kenya Medical Association, and Vice-Chair of the HIV/AIDS Tribunal of Kenya. Her work has consistently bridged government, civil society, philanthropy and multilateral actors, mobilizing over USD 100 million in grants and influencing major policy reforms.
Motivation:
My motivation for continuing to serve on the CIVICUS Board is grounded in the urgency of this moment. Across the globe, we are witnessing a coordinated and escalating assault on civic space, democratic institutions, and human rights by authoritarian and fascist regimes. Civil society organisations are being criminalised, defunded, surveilled, and delegitimised. Activists—particularly those from feminist, youth, Indigenous, and historically marginalised communities—are under attack. The rollbacks we are experiencing today threaten to erase the hard-won gains secured through decades of organising, resistance, and movement-building. In this context, the role of CIVICUS is more vital than ever. I believe that CIVICUS must not only defend civic space globally—it must also model the kind of governance, accountability, and solidarity that civil society demands from the world. My contribution is rooted in a politically grounded, unapologetically intersectional approach to protecting civic freedoms and co-creating systems of justice. I bring a deep commitment to movement-led governance, centering those most affected in shaping strategy and driving accountability. Having served on the Board over the past three years—contributing to the Operations and Membership Committees and other strategic roles—I remain committed to strengthening CIVICUS as an institution, ensuring its governance structures are resilient, representative, and grounded in lived realities. I also bring extensive experience in strategic thinking, legal analysis, governance, and finance for development, and I am ready to continue supporting CIVICUS as it navigates complex political terrains while staying true to its mission of expanding civic space, shifting power, and amplifying voices at the margins.
- Favourite Quote- Long but very relevant now
“Fascism talks ideology, but it is really just marketing—marketing for power. It is recognizable by its need to purge, by the strategies it uses to purge, and by its terror of truly democratic agendas. It is recognizable by its determination to convert all public services to private entrepreneurship, all nonprofit organizations to profit-making ones—so that the narrow but protective chasm between governance and business disappears. It changes citizens into taxpayers—so individuals become angry at even the notion of the public good. It changes neighbors into consumers—so the measure of our value as humans is not our humanity or our compassion or our generosity but what we own. It changes parenting into panicking—so that we vote against the interests of our own children; against their health care, their education, their safety from weapons. And in effecting these changes it produces the perfect capitalist, one who is willing to kill a human being for a product (a pair of sneakers, a jacket, a car) or kill generations for control of products (oil, drugs, fruit, gold).” ― Toni Morrison
- Skills I am proud of:
I am a community mobiliser and Orator :)
- Vision for CSO
My vision for civil society is one that fiercely resists the commodification of humanity. Inspired by Toni Morrison’s words, I envision a world where civil society reclaims the public good, rebuilds solidarity, and restores compassion as a measure of value. It must shield democratic agendas from market capture, protect nonprofit spaces from privatization, and insist that governance remain people-centered, not profit-driven. Civil society must be bold, unapologetically justice-oriented, and deeply rooted in collective care—transforming neighbors back into co-creators of change, citizens into stewards of equity, and movements into bulwarks against fascism, greed, and systemic violence.
- Lessons Learnt from Failing
It is not so much about failing, but about how I have responded to failure. I have refused to remain stuck in the moment and have instead leveraged it to learn, unlearn, and realign toward better outcomes.
