Kennedy Gitu is a population historian with an anthropological and archaeological background, with an interest is in pastoral demography, mobility and settlement, and climate change adaptation. He is the Country Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), and Historian in the Department of History, Archaeology and Political Studies at Kenyatta University. As the Country Director of BIEA he has prioritised pivoting the work of the Institute to serve African interests, which has included repatriating belongings and human ancestors in colonial-era collection to countries and communities of origin.