Purity Kiura

Dr. Purity Kiura is the immediate former Director of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments (2015-July 2021) and now a Chief Research Scientist in matters heritage at the National Museums of Kenya. She is a trained geologist and archaeologist having undertaken undergraduate studies in Geology at the University of Nairobi in 1997 and a Masters and Doctorate degree in Anthropology at Rutgers University, New Jersey in 2002 and 2005 respectively. As the Director of Antiquities, Sites & Monuments, she was in-charge of all museums, antiquities, sites and monuments in Kenya. This involved heritage management and conservation through surveying, mapping and registry into the national list of protected areas/objects/buildings. In addition, other duties included information dissemination through development of exhibitions and public programs within the different 23 museums in Kenya. Since the onset of COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Kiura has been instrumental in advancing virtual museum tours and online public & school programs within the institution. This has seen the institution partner with different corporates and companies in digitizing its cultural objects and historical stories among them Google and Amazon. Through these initiatives, the institution now has over 10,500 high resolution photographs of cultural objects, 90 expert-curated exhibits and 60 Street Views of 16 museums/ sites on Kenya’s culture and history which can now be experienced from anywhere in the world through a click of a button.