Shee Kupi Shee is a renowned peacebuilder, humanitarian leader, and grassroots human rights defender from Lamu County, Kenya. At 38 years old, Shee has spent his life working in one of Kenya’s most fragile regions where violent extremism, poverty, and recurrent disasters have deeply affected communities along the Kenya-Somalia border and within the Boni Forest.
Working as the Director of Peacebuilding and Disaster Management in Lamu, he has led transformative initiatives that blend civic empowerment, humanitarian response, and counter-radicalization. In 2025, he launched the Refugee Integration Program in Kiunga, enabling refugees and host communities to share fishing grounds peacefully. He has also championed interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians and built trust between communities and security agencies.
Shee founded the Lamu Emergency Operations Centre, which responds to cholera outbreaks, floods, and terror attacks. He’s one of the few public figures in Kenya to openly condemn enforced disappearances and abductions, showing rare courage in holding state actors accountable.
In advocating for human rights, he has reached over 20,000 people in areas of peacebuilding, good governance, social accountability, climate justice and protection of marginalized groups in Lamu county. He has worked on women’s rights through empowering women and girls to participate in peace and security processes, and by protecting them from violence in conflict-affected zones. In promoting youth empowerment, he has mentored the youth by promoting alternatives to counter radicalization which has reduced extremist recruitment in Lamu, subsequently advancing security and protecting youth rights.
At the core of Shee’s activism, is addressing environmental and climatic justice. Through disaster preparedness and response operations such as the 2024 flood interventions, he coordinated lifesaving disaster responses that saved over 20,000 lives, reducing climate-related vulnerabilities.
The work that Shee does in safeguarding not without challenges. These include insecurity and threats from extremist groups, intimidation from security agencies, poor infrastructure and limited resources. Not only has advocating for accountability provoked resistance from authorities but also contributed to heightened community tensions in cases where resources are scarce. He has overcome these challenges by fostering deep community trust, using non-violent methods, and mobilizing people to act within the law.