About Us | Justice Defenders

Our Story

Founded in 2007 as African Prisons Project, Justice Defenders is a registered US nonprofit and UK charity with nearly 300 people working across two African countries.

Some of us are free and some imprisoned. Some are poor in spirit and some just poor. We find value in serving others and showing mercy. We’re people who’ve fallen from the law and been captured by grace. Given our histories, we know that without grace, we are nothing.

SEE HOW IT STARTED →

Paralegals Christine Wairimu and Ruth Kamande review case files ahead of client session in Langata Womens Prison, Kenya.

Our Values

Bravery

We courageously act for a new and better world.

We seek to do what hasn’t been done before, or that which we haven’t done before. We act bravely, take risks, and move forward to a preferred future. One where justice is accessible, reliable, and can be practised best by those who need it most.

Humility

We’re servants, sinners, and saints.

We aspire to be servant lawyers. We recognise that the law can help us gain power and wealth. But we choose to give away some of those things, so we may step towards those on the margins of society. We have very little to offer but everything to give.

Solidarity

We’re building bridges in adversarial justice systems.

We value radical kinship, within our community and in partnership with other agencies. We are seeking allies out of adversaries, who will drive us forward with the hope of a better future, without being limited by our past.

OUR FOUNDER & CEO

Alexander McLean

Alexander is the Founder and CEO of Justice Defenders. He is passionate about justice, having trained as a barrister and magistrate. During gap year travels to East Africa, McLean fundraised to provide better health facilities and educate Ugandan incarcerated people about the law. After graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2007, he moved to Kampala, where he created a team of local and international staff and volunteers to develop the work of the African Prisons Project, now Justice Defenders. In the latter part of 2022, he spent time teaching at Grinnell College as well as in men’s and women’s prisons in Iowa.
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He is a Senior TED Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, and UK Young Philanthropist of the Year. He appears in TIME’s 30 Under 30 Changing the World and ‘The Power List’, featuring Britain's most influential people of African and African-Caribbean heritage.

TEAM SPOTLIGHTS

Peter Rubashumira Tibigambwa

Chief Operations Officer

Peter Tibigambwa is Chief Operations Officer at Justice Defenders, where he drives the integration of vision with practical interventions to ensure our work meets the needs of the defenceless while challenging systemic injustices. He previously led road safety reforms in Uganda with Safe Way Right Way, shaping legislation, convening the first African ministerial meeting on road safety, and rolling out an award-winning safe schools initiative across 130 schools. Earlier, his work in prison justice reform earned recognition from the Duke of Sussex as an innovator. A collaborative leader, Peter is committed to community empowerment and amplifying the voices of the defenceless.

Morris Kaberia

Legal Education Lead

Morris Kaberia is the Global Education Lead at Justice Defenders, guiding legal education and practice across Kenya and Uganda to ensure high-quality services in all legal offices. A former police officer, he was arrested in 2005, sentenced to death in 2013, and during his incarceration joined Justice Defenders’ paralegal program while pursuing a University of London law degree. Using his legal training, he successfully appealed his conviction and was released in 2018. Since then, he has served as a legal officer, advanced to Global Education Lead, and engaged in public interest litigation that has shaped criminal justice jurisprudence in Kenya. Having completed the Advocates’ Training Program at the Kenya School of Law in 2023, Morris is now undertaking his pupillage, aspiring to qualify as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya—a journey from defenceless prisoner to defender of justice.

Adebisi Desalu-Odiase

Head of Internal Operations & Planning

Adebisi Desalu-Odiase brings over 10 years of experience in C-suite support, specialising in governance, project management, HR, and administration. A seasoned senior executive assistant to CEOs, directors, trustees, and founders, Adebisi focuses on developing simple, reliable systems that transform strategy into daily operations. Of Nigerian and Irish heritage, Adebisi is married with two children and enjoys swimming, cinema visits, wildlife documentaries, and road trips. At Justice Defenders, Adebisi collaborates with colleagues across the organisation to understand operational challenges and co-create processes that boost efficiency and impact. She is passionate about continuous improvement, lifelong learning, child development, and supporting stroke survivors.

Canaan Nkamuhabwa

Legal Officer & Senior Defender

Canaan is a lawyer and human rights advocate serving as Legal Officer and Senior Defender at Justice Defenders Uganda. After completing his University of London LLB in 2022 while incarcerated, he became a Global Freedom Fellow with the Incarceration Nations Network in Cape Town. He now leads access to justice initiatives across four Ugandan prisons, supervising Legal Assistants and nearly 100 trained paralegals among prisoners and prison staff, together providing free legal advice and representation to those most often overlooked. His work has included public interest litigation challenging the death penalty and indefinite detention of individuals of unsound mind, advancing humane and inclusive legal reforms. Grounded in lived experience, Canaan embodies the transformative power of legal empowerment behind bars and is a powerful voice for justice as a right, not a privilege.

William Okumu

Legal Quality Assurance Officer

From the shadow of the gallows to the halls of justice, William Okumu’s journey is one of profound transformation. A father of six, he was sentenced to death in 2009 and during 11 years of incarceration became a pioneer student of the University of London’s LLB programme at Kamiti Maximum Prison, empowering fellow prisoners through legal training and contributing to landmark cases that reshaped Kenyan jurisprudence. Now free and an Advocate, he brings over 16 years of criminal litigation experience to Justice Defenders, where he has advanced from Legal Quality Assurance Officer to Advocate, integrating innovative legal education and trauma-informed practices to transform service delivery, with a commitment to dismantling systemic barriers so the defenceless are never without a capable advocate.

Hamisi Mzari

Acting Legal Practice Lead

Hamisi Mzari is Acting Legal Practice Lead at Justice Defenders, overseeing legal practice across 18 prisons and managing a team of advocates, lawyers, and paralegals. A former National Bank of Kenya employee, he was dismissed in 2000, arrested in 2007, and convicted in 2011. While incarcerated, he witnessed the deep injustices caused by lack of legal access and began assisting fellow prisoners with no training beyond a curious mind. This ignited his passion for justice, leading him to formally study law through Justice Defenders’ Legal Education Programme. After his release in 2014, he continued his journey and, on 23 November 2023, was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. Having lived the justice system from both sides of the bar, Hamisi now leads change from within, committed to empowering the voiceless and ensuring justice is truly just.

Our Partners

In the spirit of solidarity and radical inclusion.

Lives are lost waiting for justice to arrive. We accelerate progress alongside governments, NGOs, national prison services, funders, the judiciary, universities, and the wider legal fraternity.