Dr Roy Mugiira has been appointed the acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), Kenya, following Prof. Dorrington Ogoyi’s completion of his term. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Mugiira was the Director of Technical Services (DTS) at NBA. He holds a PhD in the diagnosis of plant viral infections based on the alignment of their DNA sequences. Furthermore, he has research experience in cloning viral DNA genomes into gene silencing vectors for application in functional genomics.
Dr Mugiira played a key role in developing Kenya’s Biotechnology Development Policy and the Biosafety Regulatory Framework for Genetically Modified Organisms. He is a member of the Biosafety Risk Assessment Panel of Experts for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and served as the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the NBA at its formative stages.
He has a wide experience in policy advisory for the governance of Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) generally and Biotechnology Development specifically. Previously, he served as the Director of Research in the Ministry of Education, Kenya, and Director, Scheduled Sciences at the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI).
The ISAAA AfriCenter family congratulates Dr. Mugiira on this appointment as we also thank Prof Ogoyi for exemplary performance during his tenure at NBA and wish him every success in his next endeavour.