26 October 2020

Alumnus Prof Kenneth Mwenda awarded Zambia’s highest civilian honour

On Saturday, May 25, 2019, Prof Kenneth K Mwenda, a Rhodes Scholar and Oxford BCL graduate (Exeter College, 1992-94; and, MBA degree – Hull University, 1994-95), was conferred upon the prestigious Presidential Insignia of Meritorious Achievement (PIMA) by the President of the Republic of Zambia, H.E. President Edgar C. Lungu.

It was the first time ever that such an award was being conferred on a legal scholar. The PIMA award is Zambia’s highest civilian honour for meritorious achievement and ranks as the equivalent of the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Prof Mwenda was conferred upon the PIMA award in recognition of his distinguished scholarly achievements in the field of law, as evidenced by the extensive body of his scholarly publications. A widely recognised thought-leader and author of twenty-five scholarly books, he is also author of more than ninety articles in leading law reviews and academic journals worldwide.

In 2008 and 2014, respectively, after a rigorous and thorough examination of Prof Mwenda’s selected scholarly books and peer-refereed journal articles by two leading universities in South Africa and the United Kingdom, namely, Rhodes University and the University of Hull, Prof Mwenda was admitted to the rarely awarded Higher Doctorate degrees of Doctor of Laws (Rhodes, LLD, 2008) and Doctor of Science in Economics (Hull, DSc(Econ), 2014). He also holds a PhD in Law from another leading British university, the University of Warwick. In 2015, Prof Mwenda gave the 2015 Distinguished Lecture at the University of Nairobi Law School in Kenya.

Prof Mwenda has also attended Harvard University, Wharton Business School, INSEAD, MIT Sloan School of Management, London Business School, Saïd Business School at Oxford, Yale University School of Management, Cornell University, University of Warwick, Georgetown University, and Northwestern University in Chicago, US. At the World Bank in Washington DC, Prof Mwenda has served as Senior Counsel for many years and now serves as the Program Manager and Executive Head of the World Bank Voice Secondment Program (VSP). He holds concurrently the position of Extraordinary Professor of Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and has taught at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) in the US, the University of Warwick in the UK, the University of Miskolc in Hungary, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the University of Western Cape in South Africa, and the University of Zambia.