Dr. Michael Murigi
Managing Director
Dr. Michael Murigi is an Agricultural and Development Economist and Certified Public Accountant with over 10 years of experience in research, monitoring, evaluation and learning, climate finance, and programme implementation. His work spans agricultural value chains, climate resilience, women’s empowerment, youth enterprise, and financial inclusion. He holds a PhD in Economics and has supported programmes funded by institutions including the World Bank, IFAD, AGRA, and UNDP. He received the Queen’s Young Leaders Award in 2018.
Prof. John Mburu
Associate Director & Alternate Managing Director
Prof. John Mburu is an Agricultural and Resource Economist with over 25 years of experience in agricultural research, natural resource management, and business sustainability. He holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Goettingen, Germany. His expertise includes value chain analysis, biodiversity conservation, climate change, cost-benefit analysis, and agricultural digitization. He has led extensive household and agribusiness surveys and published over 100 peer-reviewed publications on agriculture and the environment.
Dr. Mercy N. Mburu
Head of Operations
Dr. Mercy Mburu is an Agricultural Economist and Environmental Expert with over 12 years of experience in sustainable agricultural development, climate-smart agriculture, agroecology, and applied econometric analysis across Africa. She holds a PhD in Agriculture and Applied Economics from the University of Nairobi. She oversees DRI’s operations, including fieldwork coordination, digital data collection, data management, and analysis. Her consultancy experience includes assignments with the World Bank, FAO, IFAD, AATF, AFAAS, and IFPRI.
Dr. Evelyne W. Njuguna
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Evelyne Njuguna is an Agricultural Economist specializing in digital agriculture, agricultural technology governance, and field research coordination. She holds a PhD from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Her experience covers quantitative and qualitative research, household surveys, agricultural value chain studies, and digital agricultural service assessments. She brings expertise in stakeholder mapping and coordination, enumerator mobilization and training, and research on digital soil-testing technologies and farmer practices in Kenya.
Mr. Joseph Kimani
Research Associate
Mr. Joseph Kimani is an Agricultural Economist with expertise in socio-economic surveys, digital data collection, field supervision, and applied econometric analysis. He holds an MSc in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the joint University of Nairobi and University of Pretoria programme, where he was recognized as the second-best master’s student in the 2024/2025 cohort. His experience includes survey design, key informant interviews, focus group facilitation, and analysis using Stata, SPSS, and R.
Dr. Patrick Irungu
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Patrick Irungu is a Senior Livestock Economist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, with over 25 years of experience in research, teaching, consultancy, and policy analysis. His expertise spans livestock value chains, agricultural production and marketing, food security, climate change, commodity trade, and agricultural policy. He also brings extensive experience in project design, monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning, and has undertaken assignments for governmental, research, and development organizations in Kenya and internationally.
Dr. Pamela Ochungo
Senior Research Associate
Dr. Pamela Ochungo is DRI’s Geospatial Expert and a lecturer and researcher at the Technical University of Kenya. She holds a PhD in Conservation Ecology from Stellenbosch University and an MSc in Geoinformation Science from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work explores remote sensing, machine learning, and spatial analysis for research and development. She represents the Technical University of Kenya at the Kenya Space Agency and mentors professionals through programmes supporting women in GIS and space science.