Dr Wekesa is the Director of the African Centre for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa. His teaching, research, and public engagement work focus on Africa’s geopolitics. He has taught, supervised postgraduate projects, and published on the interdisciplinary perspectives of international media and communications, foreign policy, and diplomacy. Wekesa is also involved in conferencing, training, and networking initiatives on these topics at the policy, civil society, and think tank levels. His core areas of focus are Africa-China, Africa-US, Africa-Gulf States, and Africa in the world topics.

Over the years, Dr Wekesa has published thought leadership articles, newspaper opinion and commentary articles, peer-reviewed academic journal papers, book chapters, books, policy papers, discussion and position papers. He is a frequent commentator on current affairs on radio, podcasts, and television shows globally. His latest book is “China’s Footprint in East Africa: Pessimism and Optimism” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), his latest book chapter is “Conceptual and pragmatic perspectives on African digital diplomacy” (with Yarik Turianskyi, Elgar, 2025), and his latest journal article is Tensions, Confrontations, and Consensus: WhatsApp Use in Kenyan Electoral Politics (with Job Allan Wefwafwa, and Iginio Gagliardone, Social Media + Society, 2025).  

He leads or has led several research projects, served as lead organizer for conferences and colloquia, and fundraised for projects and initiatives on Africa’s place in the world. He also consults for several local, regional, and international organizations. He currently leads the “African agency toward global powers” at Wits University in partnership with several partners from the African continent and the rest of the world.

A Commonwealth Press Union Fellow (UK, 2002), Wekesa holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nairobi (1998) and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Communication University of China (2012 and 2015, respectively). He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand (2015).

Wekesa is the interim coordinator of the Africa-U.S. Universities Network, a fellow of the University of Southern California’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, a visiting professor at Howard University, USA, and an affiliate of the Africa China Initiative at Georgetown University, USA.  He is a board member of the Chinese in Africa/Africans in China Research Network and an ordinary member of the South African Communications Association, the South African Association of Political Studies, the East African Communications Association, the African Studies Association, the International Relations Society of Kenya, a working group member of the Center on Applied Research with the Orient (CARPO), and the information and digital rights research group based at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, among others. He is an editorial board member of the Digital Policy Studies journal based at the University of Johannesburg.

 Wekesa has consulted for many international organizations, including the United Nations Development Program, the American Bar Association, the United States Agency for International Development, the African Union Mission in Washington DC, and the European Union (through the civil society organization, Fahamu), among others.