Stephen Mwakesi

Stephen Mwakesi is the Founder and Executive Director of Extractive Insight. He brings three distinct vantage points to resource-sector decisions: experience representing industry, working inside government and advising independently.

As Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Chamber of Mines, and previously as its Policy and Research Manager, Stephen led the industry’s engagement on the Mining Bill 2014. It was assented to in 2016 as the Mining Act, the principal statute governing mineral rights in Kenya today.

He subsequently advised the Cabinet Secretary at Kenya’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mining. There, he formed part of the team that successfully defended the Republic of Kenya in an ICSID arbitration over a mining concession—work that examined how a licensing decision can become a sovereign liability and how a tenure position withstands scrutiny under international investment law.

Stephen also served as Joint Secretary to a ministerial task force on Kenya’s quarry sector, examining where regulatory design, enforcement and commercial reality diverge on the ground.

At Extractive Insight, he developed the firm’s eight-domain assessment framework and leads its research agenda. He also writes Extractives Daily, the firm’s publication on African mining, petroleum and critical minerals.

Stephen is most often called before capital is committed, when tenure or fiscal position is under challenge, or when a project that looked bankable has stopped moving.