He currently works as a professor of global health and humanitarian affairs at the University of Manchester, and is a Special Representative of the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity.

He is a specialist in crisis and conflict management, humanitarian affairs, post-conflict and development, and HIV and AIDS.

[citation needed] He was Head of Conflict and Humanitarian Affairs unit of the British Department for International Development from 1998 to 2002.

While stationed in Sudan, he was outspoken in his condemnation of the human rights abuses being committed in the western region of Darfur.

His activism began after a Darfuri woman came to his office to tell him how she, her daughter and 200 other women in the village of Tawilla had been gang-raped and mostly murdered by government soldiers and paramilitaries.

So I subsequently went on to speak about it publicly, having tried the various diplomatic routes and avenues, and I soon found myself hauled onto a plane out of Khartoum.

In 2022 Kapila wrote blog posts about corruption at United Nations Office for Project Services, which lead to resignation of its leaders.

In 2003, he was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II and named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his international service.