Doreen Abiero was a Winter Research Intern at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, where she contributed to the WHO, UNDP, and UNAIDS COVID-19 Law Lab, researching legal and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also supported work relating to the COVAX Facility and World Bank health initiatives, strengthening her expertise at the intersection of global health law, innovation, and international governance.
Doreen is now an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, AI governance and digital policy expert, and environmental lawyer whose work focuses on artificial intelligence, data governance, digital sovereignty, digital public infrastructure, and sustainable digital transformation across Africa. She currently leads regulatory and policy initiatives on AI governance, supporting governments, regional institutions, and development partners to design evidence-based, rights-respecting, and context-specific digital policy frameworks.
She has contributed to several landmark continental AI governance initiatives, including supporting the drafting of the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and contributing to technical working group engagements surrounding the African AI Council. She has designed AI governance curricula and led AI literacy and capacity-building programmes for senior policymakers across multiple African countries, helping governments strengthen institutional readiness for the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence within the public sector. Her work has also included leading multi-stakeholder consultations to develop practical AI governance frameworks tailored to African governance contexts.
Doreen has represented African perspectives at major international policy forums and also contributed to the multistakeholder consultation and validation process for the implementation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Resolution 473 (ACHPR/RES.473 (EXT.OS/XXXI) 2021), advancing human rights-centred governance of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in Africa.
She later served as a Research Fellow at Villgro Africa under the East Africa Biosciences Fellowship, where she contributed to the development of Kenya’s Health Technology Regulatory Sandbox, presented during Kenya Innovation Week 2024. She has also co-authored the OpenAIR working paper, Kenya and the WHO Pandemic Agreement, examining Kenya’s legal and policy considerations within the evolving global pandemic governance framework.
Doreen holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Environmental Law from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the University of Nairobi. Her undergraduate dissertation, Embracing Stem Cell Research in Kenya: A Legal Perspective, reflected her longstanding interest in health law, biotechnology and innovation governance. In recognition of her growing contribution to legal and technology policy, she was shortlisted for the 2026 Next Generation Legal Leader Award at the Legal Innovation & Impact Awards in Sandton, Johannesburg.