James Shikwati

Jeffrey D. Sachs, a Columbia University professor who is a leading aid advocate, calls Shikwati’s criticisms of foreign assistance “shockingly misguided” and “amazingly wrong.” “This happens to be a matter of life and death for millions of people, so getting it wrong has huge consequences,” Sachs said.

On 6 July 2007, Shikwati was named among top 100 most influential Kenyans in a study that was conducted by The Standard Group, 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. On March 11, 2008, The World Economic Forum named Shikwati among the 250 Young Global Leaders of 2008.

Shikwati was also featured in a November 18, 2006 article in the New York Times:

A graduate from the University of Nairobi (B.ED Arts 1994), attended Musingu High School (1989) and taught Kiptewit High School (1994–2001) in Kericho Rift Valley province in Kenya. He is a "self taught" economist.

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 made comments which imply that aid towards Africa does more harm than good to their people, based on the central arguments that it is mainly used either by politicians as a tool to manipulate people and influence votes, or as a mechanism for dumping subsidised foreign agricultural products onto local markets at below cost making it nearly impossible for African farmers to compete.