Human Rights activist Irungu Houghton. [Photo: oxfamblogs.org]International human rights body Amnesty International Kenya has made changes at its top leadership.Irungu Houghton will now be the new boss at Amnesty International Kenya with effect from Monday, 8th January.Irungu will officially take over as the executive director succeeding Justus Nyang’aya, who has led the organisation for eight years and seven months. Nyang’aya moves on to head a regional organisation Leadership Education for Africa that deals with accountability.Houghton is an activist and leading voice in the civil society movement and is credited for being among the activists who staged dramatic protests in 2015 that led to the recovery of the Lang’ata Road Primary School playground that had been grabbed, the Star reports.The protests gave birth to the Shule Yangu Campaign Alliance aimed at protecting public schools against land grabs which has led to over 1,000 schools being issued with title deeds.“I have been in the justice and human rights field for over 27 years. I started off as a volunteer activist for organisations like Release for Political Prisoners in 1991," said Houghton as quoted by the Star.He adds: "I was involved too in the Mothers in Action campaign that kicked off after the rape ordeal of 60 girls at St Kizito. I was also a coordinator for ethnic clashes network, and the Maila evictions in 1990 to clamour for a new Constitution and the 2017 Redcard campaign."Houghton has exuded confidence in his new role saying that 'this is a field that I know well'. He says for the past five years, he has been working on one part of the Constitution which is Chapter six on leadership and integrity, and is now looking forward to working on Chapter 4 which is on Bill of Rights.

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