Prof. Martine Odhiambo Oleche

Martine Odhiambo Oleche is an Associate Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics and Development Studies (DEDS), University of Nairobi, where he has worked for about 17 years.  He holds a PhD in Economics (CPP_UoN and UDSM), MA in Economics (UoN), and BA in Economics (UoN).His research focuses on Health Economics, Development Economics, Economic Policy Analysis, Labor Economics, Household and Welfare Economics, Poverty and Inequality, Public Sector Economics, Trade and International Economics, and Climate Economics. Prior to joining the University of Nairobi, he worked with the National Treasury of Kenya as a Senior Economist/Statistician in the State Law Office (Attorney General’s Office) for a period of eight years where he advised on various economic policy matters. He is currently diligently serving in the National Committee on Review of the New University Education Funding Model (Appointed by the President via Gazette notice vol. CXXVI—No. 142 dated 16th September 2024); a member of the Kenya E-Commerce Implementation Committee and the University of Nairobi Productivity Mainstreaming Committee. He also served in the Kenya Industrialization Conference-2023 Committee as representative of the University of Nairobi. 

He is a member of research team of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA)-African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR) Kenya node. He is currently involved in the Kenya Fiscal Incidence Analysis (KFIA) research funded by the World Bank and UNICEF. He has been involved in The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Collaborative Human Capital Development in Africa as well as Health Financing Vulnerability in Kenya Projects funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), enhancing policy dialogue between the Ministries of Health and Finance in Kenya, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Ivory Coast under the PROPEL project funded by USAID, and UoN Women Economic Empowerment Hub (WEE Hub). He was one of the Health Economists engaged by the UNDP and The National Treasury and Planning (State Department for Planning-SDP) to develop the 9th Kenya National Human Development Report (KNHDR) whose main theme was Human Development in the Covid-19 era: envisioning the recovery in Kenya for Social-Economic Development. Recently, he was also involved in the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Technical Training Workshop composed of 18 countries in SSA on Health Systems Evaluation and Policy Analysis for State and Non-State Actors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Moreover, he has also been involved in a number of National Defence University of Kenya (NDU-K) assignments where he has trained Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) top management, Kenya Defence College (KDF); National Police Service (NPS), Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) and Immigration departments, Office of the Auditor General (OAG), Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentist Council (KMPDC), Executive Office of the President and MoH on their roles as enablers of the economic instrument of power. 

He is therefore an accomplished researcher and scholar with extensive national and international experience and exposure. He has carried out many research projects for the government, donor agencies, and research institutions.  He has published extensively and has also supervised a number of MA and Ph.D. students both in Kenyan Universities and beyond. He is an external examiner in a number of universities both in Kenya and other countries in the Eastern and Southern Africa region where he has examined many undergraduate and graduate students.