About NSEC

The National Scientific and Ethics Committee (NSEC) is constituted by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) in exercise of the Commission’s mandate to establish expert and advisory bodies.

NSEC is a committee of experts and community representatives, consisting of individuals with diverse expertise and experience. The Committee advises the Commission on matters of research ethics and scientific quality, in line with NACOSTI’s broader mandate to regulate and assure quality within the research, science, technology and innovation sector, and to advise the Government on related matters.

Our History

From fragmented beginnings. As research in Kenya grew in volume and complexity, ethics oversight developed piecemeal rather than nationally. Kenyatta National Hospital established the country’s first research ethics committee, followed by KEMRI and others at Moi University, in Nyanza and at the Coast, each operating under the Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Health, with no common national standard.

The National Bioethics Committee (2009–2013). In 2009, with the engagement of UNESCO, it was resolved that national guidelines for accrediting these committees should be developed. This led to the formation of the National Bioethics Committee (NBC), whose members were appointed in 2010. The NBC was subsequently anchored in law under the Science, Technology and Innovation Act, No. 28 of 2013.

An expanded national mandate (2021). In November 2021, the NBC’s mandate was expanded beyond bioethics to cover all fields of research, and the Committee was renamed. The expansion responded to the provisions of the Constitution of Kenya and to new ethical challenges emerging across the research landscape; transforming a health-focused committee into a body with oversight of scientific and ethical standards in research nationally.

NSEC Today. The Committee now operates within NACOSTI as the National Scientific and Ethics Committee. It sets the guidelines and accreditation standards that Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Committees (ISERCs) must meet, advises the Commission on research-ethics policy and on the establishment and accreditation of ISERCs, provides peer oversight on the scientific merit of proposals referred to it, and — at the heart of its mandate — protects the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of research participants in Kenya.