James Shikwati

James Shikwati (born 1970) is a Kenyan libertarian economist and Director of the Inter Region Economic Network who promotes freedom of trade as the driving solution to poverty in Africa.

He has written widely on a variety of subjects in Kenyan and international newspapers, magazines, such as The Times, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Business News, The Daily Nation, and The East African Standard.

Shikwati has worked extensively with internationally acclaimed opinion leaders to promote ideas that improve productivity, and increase freedom to trade as a way to alleviate poverty.

He is the founder and Executive Director of the Inter Region Economic Network [IREN], an independent and non-partisan think tank that promotes policies geared towards the creation of a free Africa.

On 6 July 2007, Shikwati was named among top 100 most influential Kenyans in a study that was conducted by The Standard Group,[2] one of the Kenya’s leading media houses, he was described as one person whose decisions and actions are not motivated by the publicity they attract but by passion for what they do.