Professor Norah Khadzini Olembo (10 June 1941 – 11 March 2021) was a Kenyan biochemist and policy developer, who helped establish standards for use of biotechnology in Kenya.

[2] After passing her O-level examination, the Friends Church in Kaimosi gave Ngaira a scholarship to attend The Mount School in York, England, between 1962 and 1964.

[2][8] During her studies, Ngaira met Reuben Olembo, a guest lecturer from Makerere College in Kampala, Uganda,[8] who was originally from the Vihiga District in Kenya.

She earned a bachelor of science and began her master's degree work in zoology under her mentor Thomas Risley Odhiambo, a Kenyan entomologist.

Farmers established trial farms, using indigenous knowledge and practices, and scientists provided starter crops along with consultations and evaluations.

[14] Olembo, Eddah Gachukia, and Njoki Wainaina were appointed to the Kenya NGO Organising Committee in 1984 to plan the Forum activities for the 1985 World Conference on Women to be held in Nairobi.

[13][4] Her duties at the organisation were to monitor and assist in the development of a comprehensive national policy on environmental management, which included regulating trade and intellectual property rights in connection with biodiversity.

[17][24] Olembo was in favour of using biotechnology to gain self-sufficiency in food production,[25] and to prevent environmental damage caused by traditional farming methods.

[27] When Kenya decided to use biotechnologies, safety regulations and policies needed to be drafted, and Olembo contacted colleagues in the Netherlands to assist with funding the research committee.

[28] She chaired the Kenya-Netherlands Biotechnology Platform,[29] which worked with the National Council for Science and Technology, the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), and the World Bank,[29] consulting with farmers, industries, and scientists for a full year before beginning a review of policy documents from various organisations and governments that had established regulations.

[34] Olembo pointed out that it was the Kenyans who discovered a group of sex workers whose immune systems prevented them from contracting HIV even though they were exposed to the virus.

[41] She also chaired the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) from its establishment in 2001 as an autonomous institution,[42] outside the umbrella of the International Development Research Centre headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, until 2007.

[43] According to Olembo, the purpose of the institution was to create the policies which would enable science and technology, research and development, and scientific education and training to thrive throughout Africa.

[44] During her tenure, a major hurdle to achieving their goals was the low government and donor support in sub-Saharan Africa for investment in science and technology.

[49] The centre worked in partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency, which financed a research laboratory at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, for scientists from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, to collaborate on developing plants that were disease-resistant and on creating vaccines for livestock diseases, which opened in 2004.

[50] In 2003, Olembo was part of a study panel, including head of English Nature Brian Johnson (chair, UK), Virender Lal Chopra (India), Anne Kapuscinski (US), and Gabrielle Persley (Australia) to study biosafety within the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) framework and make recommendations on policies and best practices which could be implemented to improve the safety design.

[4][54] In 2008, Olembo was appointed to serve through 2012, as co-chair with Agnes Wakesho Mwang'ombe of the African Women's Forum on Science and Technology (AWFST).

[56] The inaugural steering committee had representatives from the diaspora, as well as members such as Afaf Marei and Manal Samra (Egypt), RoseEmma Mamaa Entsua-Mensah and Peggy Oti-Boateng (Ghana), Lucy Muchoki (Kenya), Mamolise Falatsa and Deepa Pullanikkatil (Lesotho), Ogugua Rita Eboh and Obioma Nwaorgu (Nigeria), Bitrina Diyamett (Tanzania) and Noah Matovu (Uganda), who were considered to be experts in their fields.

[58] She nurtured generations of students and simultaneously took on leadership roles in developing scientific policies that would shape the standards of both the University of Nairobi and the government.

[17][25][26] She successfully pressed for the creation of policies to enshrine biosafety protocols, to protect intellectual property rights, to enable the adoption of innovative science and technology discoveries and to promote scientific education, research, and development.