Bernadette Muyomi is the founder of African Grassroots, an NGO that supports and advocates for vulnerable populations in and around Busia County, Kenya.

“I have learned about integration which I hope to bring to my work. Integration in two aspects: 1) When you are working for programming for people with disabilities there is a very high impact when people can relate to personal stories. That means involving the people with disabilities themselves. 2) Ensuring that people with
disabilities are working in familiar areas for people without disabilities, because that is how people learn about each other’s challenges, how to accommodate each other, and how to be better self-advocates.”

As her organization’s first and current leader, Bernadette is highly talented at motivating young leaders and engaging diverse stakeholders in projects that have a transformative impact on inclusion of people with disabilities. She has a wide array of multidisciplinary professional and academic experience that includes political advocacy, public administration, nonprofit management, nursing, and counselling. Her experiences in these diverse fields have enabled her to skilfully engage service providers at all levels (from the government to the individual) to ensure equity for all.

Bernadette is especially active in engaging public officials to defend the rights of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable populations. She served as a county minister in the government of Busia County for several years and regularly engages public authorities in the County Assembly as part of advocacy efforts to promote social justice, gender equity and inclusive economic empowerment. Bernadette also holds an LLM/MPhil on Disability Rights in Africa (DRIA) from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. Additionally, she is an alumna of the Young African Leaders initiative (YALI).