Our Team

JAMES MURAGURI

Chief Executive Officer

James Muraguri is a public finance practitioner with over 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector. He is founder and CEO of the Institute of Public Finance Kenya (IPFK), a nonprofit think-tank that pursues the ideals of open public finance through training, research and capacity strengthening.

He is also a member of the International advisory group of Public Finance by Women, a nonprofit foundation working to promote true gender equality and equal career opportunities for women working in public finance and a founding board member of People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy.

In addition to leading IPFK, James is part of its technical team, where he works to support communities to engage meaningfully with elected officials and civil servants on public expenditure and equity. An accountant by training and currently pursuing his Masters Education in Public Finance, he is the lead consultant for Kenya on the Open Budget Survey (OBS), the world’s only independent, comparable measure of budget transparency, participation, and oversight.

As an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity, he is part of a global cohort of social- change leaders, policy-makers and researchers housed at the International Inequalities Institute in the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK.

WANJOHI NDIRANGU

Head of Programmes

Wanjohi Ndirangu has extensive knowledge in public finance policies and advocacy on equity, citizen participation, and accountability. He has developed policy proposals to relevant institutions for policy change geared towards addressing gaps in public finance management.

He has fast-paced 5 years working experience in county and national level public finance management systems; in capacity strengthening and training for community groups, civil society organizations, members of county assemblies and county executives in various counties in the country.

SANDRA MUCHIRI

Lead Finance and Administration Officer

Sandra Muchiri serves in the capacity of Lead Finance and Administration Officer at IPFK. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (Accounting and Finance Option) from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and CPA Part II.

With over four years’ experience in Financial Management and Reporting, Management Accounting, Office Administration, Cash-flow and Investment Management, Sandra supervises the daily operations at IPFK and spearheads the migration and implementation of the ERP system that is currently being used at the Institute.

When she is not playing with numbers, you may find her in another corner of the world excitedly fulfilling her passion for travel.

JOHN JUMA NYANGI

Head of Research

An Economist and Public Finance Management Specialist with over seven years’ experience teaching and conducting research in Public Financial Management and service delivery in social sectors particularly in Health, Agriculture, Social Protection and Gender Development.

He leads the preparation of IPFK’s flagship analytic products, such as the annual Shadow Budget and the annual Macro-Fiscal Analytic Briefs. He has deep understanding and professional experience in designing and administering data instruments as well as using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis packages such as R, STATA, SPSS and NVivo to classify, summarize, organize, analyze, visualize, present, interpret and manage data.

Nyangi holds a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and Administration and a Bachelor of Economics and Finance from Kenyatta University. He is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in Health Economics and Policy at the University of Nairobi and Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management at Kenyatta University

MAUREEN ONYANGO

Communication Lead

Maureen Onyango is an accomplished communication enthusiast with a solid background in communication strategy and advocacy, public relations, social media management and content development.

Maureen is a skilled communication specialist with more than 4 years of industry experience in collecting, organizing, interpreting, and disseminating various communication materials in both corporate and non-profit organizations.

She advises and offers guidance to advance the Institute’s public finance policy priorities with a focus on communications tactics including media outreach, social and digital media, press releases, op-eds, public speaking, and thought leadership.

SAMSON MWANGI

Projects Accountant

Samson or Sam as many call him at IPFK works in the position of a project accountant at the Finance and Administration department. He has ten years’ experience in financial management, operations management, leadership, and supervision.

He can effectively manage operations, lead personnel, analyze strategic business decisions and risk management. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, a Bachelor of Science in Applied Accounts from Oxford Brooks University and ACCA professional level qualification. In addition, he is currently pursuing his Master of Science in Project Management at the University of Nairobi.

WINNIE MAGETO

Fiscal Analyst

Winnie Mageto is a trained economist with interest in Public Finance management. She has over 6 years specialized experience in teaching, conducting research in public finance Management, Health, Climate Change Revenue mobilization, Fiscal Decentralization, Agriculture, Public Debt among others.

She leads the preparation of the Open Budget Survey and preparation of key products in IPF-Kenya including the Macro Fiscal Analytic Brief, Shadow Budget, Research Briefs on Emergency Financing and Own Source Revenue Mobilization.

She has an in-depth knowledge in Research and Publishing and has published a paper on ''Commercialization of sweet potatoes in Kenya'' in a peer reviewed journal. She has excellent data analytic skills as well as knowledge of analyzing data using Stata and SPSS.

Winnie holds a Bachelor of Economics and Finance from Kenyatta University and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Nairobi. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in Economics at the University of Nairobi.

MARYANNE WANJIKU

Programmes Assistant

Maryanne Wanjiku has hands-on experience in strengthening the capacity of citizens towards enhancing their ability to be part of government decision making process in the budgets both at the National and County level and as a result demand for improved service delivery.

Maryanne has a deeper understanding on social accountability work intended to help citizens hold their leaders more accountable for the promises they make around service delivery, ensure value for their money as well as shape their priorities for future engagements with the Governments.

Currently, she is working with the private sector who are the major contributors of taxes collected by the county governments to ensure those taxes match the services provided to them. She is also working on a project that seeks to enhance awareness by the citizens of the country’s debt accumulation. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Marketing) and a Certificate in Public Finance Management (IMF).

Her mantra is, ‘If you do not ask, the answer will always be NO!’