Samwel Mohochi is a fierce human rights defender and an ardent supporter of criminal prosecution for those that bear greatest responsibility as a methodology of bringing to closure historical violations and affording victims access to justice. He currently serves as a member of the general assembly of the World Organisation Against Torture. He most recently worked for the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as an expert on transitional justice as a component leader for the Judicial and Non-Judicial Redress Governance Integrity & Accountability Project–Kenya. Apart from working directly with survivors and families of victims of torture and related violations, he has extensively engaged in international advocacy on the subject before treaty monitoring bodies, UN special procedures and the United Nations Human Rights Council. He was also one of the founding members of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project.
Samwel is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and holds a master’s degree in Human Rights (Transitional Justice) from Ulster University, Belfast, in the United Kingdom. Since his admission to the Bar in 2001, Mr Mohochi has practised as a litigator in human rights issues in Kenya and the Eastern Africa region, initially while working as a programme coordinator of the Litigation Fund against Torture (2001-2005) and subsequently in the Independent Medico Legal Unit (2006-2010) as the Executive Director. He also served as the Executive Director, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya) (2015-2019). He is a member of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), East African Law Society (EALS), International Commission of Jurists (ICJ Kenya), the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) and the Chartered Public Secretaries of Kenya.