Nerima Akinyi Were is a human rights lawyer, feminist legal practitioner and Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She holds an LLB and LLM from the University of Pretoria, completed the Advocates Training Programme at the Kenya School of Law, and has taught at the University of Nairobi’s School of Law.

She is the Principal Advocate and Founder of N.A. Were Advocates. She previously served as Legal Director at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa, Acting Executive Director and Deputy Executive Director at the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS, and Programme Manager for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Her experience spans strategic litigation, feminist legal methods, constitutional and human rights law, sexual and reproductive health and rights, programme leadership, research, advocacy, and movement building across Kenya, Africa and international human rights spaces.

Nerima has also worked as a law researcher at the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Land Claims Court in South Africa, and completed pupillage at Coulson Harney Advocates. She has led and contributed to research on sexual and gender-based violence, the right to health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, access to information, HIV, constitutional implementation, and health governance. Her publications and presentations include work on abortion law reform in Africa, anti-rights public health agendas, civil society and democracy, feminist methods in strategic litigation, and accountability within human rights systems.

In 2018, she was a Mandela Washington Fellow in the civic leadership track at the Presidential Precinct, University of Virginia, and the College of William and Mary. She is a member of the Feminist Litigation Network, Chair of the Advisory Board of Teen Seed, and a member of the GFAN International Steering Committee. In 2024, she was included in the Nairobi Legal Awards’ Top 80 Women in Law list and recognised as first runner-up for Civil Society Lawyer of the Year.

Through N.A. Were Advocates, Nerima is pursuing an innovative legal practice focused on strategic litigation and human rights in Kenya and across the region, with particular attention to sexual and reproductive justice, women’s human rights, feminist legal practice, civic space, and responses to anti-rights actors.