Oxford confers highest honour on Zambia’s celebrated scholar, Professor Kenneth K Mwenda, PhD, LLD, DSc(Econ)
Awarded to eminently qualified and distinguished persons who have achieved the highest distinction in academia or public life, Honorary Fellowships at Oxford are prestigious and rare honors to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary achievements of exceptional individuals. This category of Oxford fellowships does not constitute an employment contract and should not be confused with tutorial or research fellowships. As the American Society for Legal History in the US avers, regarding its Honorary Fellowships, ‘Honorary Fellows are the scholars we admire, whom we aspire to emulate, and on whose shoulders we stand.’
In a recent letter from Oxford’s Exeter College to Professor Mwenda, informing him that the Governing Council of Oxford’s Exeter College has elected him as an Honorary Fellow of the College, the following statement was conveyed:
“This is a category of Fellowship reserved for individuals, usually with a significant connection to the College, who are both distinguished in their field and who have also contributed to society more generally. It is the highest honour that the College can bestow, and we hope that (in some small way) it serves to demonstrate the very high regard within which you are held by our community.”
Currently, Professor Mwenda serves as Extraordinary Professor of Law at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa, and has previously taught at the University of Warwick (UK), the University of Cape Town (South Africa), the University of Pretoria (South Africa), American University Washington College of Law (USA), Miskolc University (Hungary) and the University of Zambia. He also continues to serve as Extraordinary Professor of Law at the University of Lusaka in Zambia. In 1995, at a tender age of 26 years only, Professor Mwenda became the first Zambian legal scholar to be appointed to a full-time Law Lectureship at one of the top ten (10) British universities, the University of Warwick. In 2015, he gave the 2015 Distinguished Lecture at the University of Nairobi School of Law in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the last three decades, Professor Mwenda has taught at leading universities in three different continents, namely, North America, Europe and Africa.
A Rhodes Scholar and Oxford graduate, Professor Mwenda concurrently serves as the Manager and Executive Head of the World Bank Voice Secondment Program at the World Bank in Washington DC, USA. He has also served previously as Senior Counsel in both the Legal Vice-Presidency and Integrity Vice-Presidency of the World Bank. In addition, at the World Bank, he has worked on almost all geographical regions of the world, covering many sectors. Professor Mwenda is a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Zambia Academy of Sciences. Admitted as a Fellow of the International Compliance Association in the UK and a Fellow of the British Institute of Commerce, he holds a British PhD in Law from the University of Warwick as well as a Higher Doctorate in Law (LLD) from Rhodes University in South Africa and a second Higher Doctorate, the degree of Doctor of Economic Sciences (DSc(Econ)), from the University of Hull in the UK. Further, Professor Mwenda is a US-certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist as well as a US-certified Mediator and Negotiator.
At Oxford, Professor Mwenda attended Exeter College from 1992 to 1994 and read for the famed two-year graduate law degree, the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL I & II, now structured sequentially as a one-year BCL, followed by a one-year MPhil in Law). He has also studied business and leadership at other leading universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, INSEAD, Wharton, MIT, London Business School, Cornell, Kellogg, Georgetown and Hull. Professor Mwenda joins the elite ranks of other eminent and distinguished scholars as well as learned and notable statemen and statewomen who have been elected as Honorary Fellows of various colleges at Oxford. These Honorary Fellows include some famous Nobel Prize Laureates such as (i) Professor John Goodenough (Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College at Oxford, who, in 2019, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the lithium-ion battery), (ii) Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn (Honorary Fellow of Jesus College at Oxford, who, in 2009, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research and contributions to the understanding of telomeres and the enzyme telomerase), (iii) Professor J. M. Coetzee (Honorary Fellow of the Oxford Animal Centre for Ethics, who, in 2023, received the Nobel Prize in Literature); (iv) Professor Sydney Brenner (Honorary Fellow of Exeter College at Oxford, who, in 2002, received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine); (v) Professor Thomas S. Eliot (Honorary Fellow of Merton College at Oxford, who, in 1948 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature); (vi) Professor Rudolph A. Marcus (Honorary Fellow of University College at Oxford, who, in 1992, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry); (vii) Chinese writer, Mo Yan, (Honorary Fellow of Regent’s Park College at Oxford, who, in 2012, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature); (viii) Professor Stanley Whittingham (Honorary Fellow of New College at Oxford, who, in 2019, also received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry; (ix) Professor Michael Kosterlitz (Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College at Oxford, who, in 2016, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the exotic state of matter), and, (x) Ms Malala Yousafzai, the world's youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Oxford University's Linacre College in 2023.
Other Honorary Fellows at various Oxford colleges include such intellectual luminaries as the following Higher Doctorate degree holders: (a) Lord Andrew Stephen Burrows, DCL (Oxon) (Honorary Fellow, Brasenose College); (b) Sir John Ashworth, PhD (Leicester) DSc(Oxon) (Honorary Fellow, Exeter College); (c) Sir Jack Beatson, LLD (Cambridge), DCL (Oxon); (d) Sir Anthony John Patrick, DPhil (Oxon), DLitt (Oxon) (Honorary Fellow, Balliol College); (e) Sir Anthony James Leggett, DPhil (Oxon) DSc (Oxon) (Honorary Fellow, Balliol College); (f) William Graham Richards, DPhil (Oxon) DSc (Oxon); and, (g) Andrew Douglas Garrad, PhD (Exeter), DEng (Bristol) (Honorary Fellow, New College).
Closely related to this, Her Majesty, Queen Sofia of Spain, was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Exeter College in 1989. In 2002, the President of the Republic of Ghana at the time, President John Kufuor, who, like Professor Mwenda, is also an alumnus of Oxford’s Exeter College, was elected as Honorary Fellow of Exeter College. President Kufuor attended Oxford’s Exeter College from 1961 to 1964, studying philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), and graduated in 1964. In an online article dated Wednesday, May 8, 2002, and titled, ‘President Kufuor honoured by Exeter College’, the GhanaWeb reported that:
“The Governing body of Exeter College of Oxford University has bestowed on President J.A. Kufuor an Honorary Fellowship of the College. A release signed by Mr J.O. Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, said the message about the honour was sent to the President through Ghana High Commission in London. A letter signed Madam Marilyn Buttler, the President of the College, explained that the Honorary Fellowship had been a category reserved for old members who have reached a special eminence.”
More recently, in 2018, former US First Lady and (former) US Secretary of State, Ms Hilary Clinton, was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Mansfield College while her husband, a Rhodes Scholar and former US President, President Bill Clinton, was elected in 1993 as an Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s University College. Then, in 2022, Simon Woolley, Lord Woolley of Woodford, and Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge, was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Magdalen College. As noted on Magdalen College’s website: ‘Simon Woolley was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2019 and was created a life peer in December of the same year. He sits as a crossbencher in the House of Lords.’
In reputable international organizations and multilateral institutions, some of the eminent persons who have been elected as Honorary Fellows at Oxford include Ms Katherine Susan Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK since 2000 (elected as Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Brasenose College in 2006), Sir Nicolas Bratza, former President of the European Court of Human Rights (elected as Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Brasenose College in 2011), and Mr William Lacy Swing, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) (elected as Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Harris Manchester College in 2013). IOM is part of the
United Nations System.
On his election as Honorary Fellow of Oxford’s Exeter College, Professor Mwenda had the following to say:
“This coveted and esteemed award from my alma mater, Oxford’s Exeter College, came as a pleasant surprise. I had no idea that I was being considered. It is a humbling experience, and is, without doubt, an indelible and edifying mark of the highest levels of scholarly recognition. As a scholar, I can think of no greater honor than one from Oxford, especially given the unparalleled academic standing of the university internationally.”With a great sense of humility, Professor Mwenda avers that his election to the prestigious Honorary Fellowship at Oxford has put Zambia on the world map. Looking back at the road leading to this Oxford honor, he notes further:
“This is the highest honor that a college at Oxford can confer on its alumni. As you might know, I graduated from Oxford almost thirty (30) years ago. Since then, I have maintained a sustained trajectory of notable thought-leadership. As a result, I have received many scholarly awards and honors that include the President’s Insignia of Meritorious Achievement (PIMA), two earned Higher Doctorates from two leading universities in the UK and South Africa (an unparalleled feat across the entire African continent), a competitive fellowship from Yale University Law School (that is, the best Law School in the US), the recognition as Honorary Tourism Ambassador for Zambia, and several senior academic appointments at various leading universities as Extraordinary Professor of Law and Visiting Professor of Law. In addition, I have published close to thirty (30) scholarly books and more than a hundred (100) articles in leading peer-reviewed academic journals as well as supervised and examined several PhD theses across many universities around the globe. Furthermore, I have mentored many young professionals as well as contributed meaningfully to philanthropy, educational causes and improving the lives of many young vulnerable people. Today, most of the students that I have taught and mentored are global leaders in many parts of the world, including Zambia. So, I can safely say that my contribution to society at home and abroad has not gone unnoticed.”
In his concluding remarks, Professor Mwenda posits that election as an Honorary Fellow of an Oxford college is not only prestigious but also a testament of how the international community views you as a leading pundit, thought-leader or public leader. He concludes by saying:
“I am eternally grateful to God, our Heavenly Father Almighty, for this rare and very prestigious honor from Oxford, as well as to all those who made it possible, especially the distinguished members of the Governing Council that elected me. I look forward to giving my best as Honorary Fellow of Exeter College at the University of Oxford.”
