Kenneth Mwenda

A Rhodes Scholar, Professor Kenneth K. Mwenda is Senior Counsel in the Legal Vice-Presidency of the World Bank, Washington DC. He also serves as Extraordinary Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Professor Mwenda holds, among many other qualifications, the esteemed and rarely awarded Higher Doctorate Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Rhodes University, South Africa and a PhD in Corporate Law from the University of Warwick, UK. Professor Mwenda is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), with management qualifications from Cornell University and Georgetown University, respectively. He has also previously served as a law professor at a leading British university, the University of Warwick. In addition, Professor Mwenda has been Visiting Professor of Law at several universities in Europe and Africa. He is the author and editor of twenty-one (21) scholarly books and over seventy (70) peer-reviewed articles in leading law academic journals and law reviews.

A Rhodes Scholar, Professor Kenneth K. Mwenda is a widely recognised thought-leader in the fields of public international law, law and economy in developing countries, international economic law, law in development, the political economy of law, cognate areas of law and the social sciences, international organizations, international and comparative corporate law, securities regulation, banking regulation, financial services regulation, emerging markets, corporate finance law, corporate insolvency law, trusts, company law, corporate governance, contracts, anti-money laundering and compliance, as well as governance and anti-corruption. He has published in all these areas and is author of twenty-three (23) scholarly books and over eighty (80) articles in leading law reviews and academic journals. Professor Mwenda has also co-authored several scholarly works with leading Supreme Court Judges. Some of his former law students have served as judicial clerks and law professors while others have gone on to become prominent Supreme Court Judges and High Court Judges as well as prominent Cabinet Ministers in their respective countries.

In 2014 and 2008, Professor Mwenda was awarded after rigorous and thorough examination of his distinguished body of published scholarly work the coveted and rarely awarded Higher Doctorate degrees of Doctor of Science in Economics (DSc(Econ)) and Doctor of Laws (LLD), respectively, by two leading universities in the United Kingdom and South Africa, namely, the University of Hull and Rhodes University. He also holds a PhD in Securities Regulation from a leading British university, the University of Warwick. Professor Mwenda has taught law at top universities in the US, the United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa. With a sustained twenty-three (23) years of valuable experience in academia, in addition to sixteen (16) years of international development practice at the World Bank, Professor Mwenda has strong inter- and multi-disciplinary skills. He now serves as the Manager and Executive Head of the World Bank’s Voice Secondment Program, a major capacity-building initiative of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank. Professor Mwenda has also advised several Governments across many regions of the world on various legal, institutional and policy reforms, and is a highly sought-after speaker at major international forums. More recently, Professor Mwenda has appeared regularly on the US Voice of America’s Straight Talk Africa TV program which broadcasts live in many parts of the world.

At the World Bank, Professor Mwenda has served additionally as Senior Legal Counsel in the Legal Vice-Presidency of the World Bank as well as Senior Legal Counsel in the World Bank’s Integrity Vice-Presidency. Concurrent with his work at the World Bank, he has also held the esteemed position of Extraordinary Professor of Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Prior to joining the World Bank, Professor Mwenda was an Assistant Professor of Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Warwick. A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Professor Mwenda read law at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. And he is a recipient of several international academic awards, including a graduate fellowship from Yale University Law School in the US. A member of the editorial boards of several scholarly journals, including the Journal of International Banking Regulation and the Africa Finance Journal, Professor Mwenda is also an occasional editor of the Journal of African Business, and was until recently Editor-in-Chief of the World Bank’s Law, Justice and Development Book Series. His scholarly work has been cited as authority not only in academia, but also by the courts of law, most recently by the Supreme Court for the Republic of Zambia in the case of Ventriglia and Ventriglia v. Eastern and Southern Africa Trade and Development Bank and Robert Simeza SCZ NO. 13 OF 2010 (Appeal No. 11/ 2009). His other scholarly work has been seminal in some of the research work and country assessments carried out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). And Professor Mwenda has taught as Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) in Washington DC. In addition to the joint BCL/MPhil in Law degree from the University of Oxford (UK), he holds an MBA degree from the University of Hull (UK). His first professional law degree, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), is from the University of Zambia where he graduated in the top one percent (1%) of his class. Further, Professor Mwenda holds Advanced Management and Executive Leadership credentials from Cornell University (US) and Georgetown University (US), respectively, and is an Advocate of the High Court for Zambia. A US Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) and Fellow of the International Compliance Association (FICA), Professor Mwenda has served as Visiting Full Professor of Law at many leading universities (e.g. the University of Miskolc (Hungary); the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa; the University of Pretoria (South Africa); the University of Western Cape (South Africa); the University of Zambia (Zambia); and the University of Lusaka (Zambia)), and has given many lead lectures and presentations at major universities in the US, Europe and Africa.

EDUCATION

• LL.D., Rhodes University, South Africa
• Ph.D., University of Warwick, UK
• B.C.L., University of Oxford
• M.Phil., University of Oxford
• M.B.A., University of Hull, UK
• LL.B., University of Zambia