MaryFrances is Assistant Professor in Law at Sussex Law School and an Advocate (Solicitor/Barrister) of the High Court of Kenya. She holds a PhD from Sussex Law School, an LLM in Human Rights Law from the Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, South Africa and a Bachelor of Social and Legal Sciences and an LLB (Hons) from the University of Pune, India. Her research focuses on the promotion of sexual and reproductive health of sex workers in Kenya, through an interdisciplinary human rights approach. MaryFrances was a Visiting Lecturer at Kingston University London, an Assistant Lecturer at Masinde Muliro University of Science & Technology and Guest Lecturer at the United States International University in Kenya.

Before moving into academia, MaryFrances worked as a human rights lawyer in private practice and with the Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA Kenya) a leading women's rights organisation in Kenya. In her work at FIDA Kenya, she actively advocated for women’s rights through advocacy and legal representation in court. She trained clients to litigate in person, conducted mediations and engaged with the informal justice system to mainstream gender and human rights. She organised and facilitated various workshops, conducted trainings, prepared policy briefs as well as memoranda. She has been trained on Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument (HeRWAI), a policy analysis and advocacy tool for better implementation of women's rights to health.

MaryFrances also drafted shadow reports and represented the organisation during State Reporting at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in The Gambia, United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York and the Human Rights Committee in Geneva. She also commissioned various research projects including Female Genital Mutilation and she was assistant researcher on the first in-depth study that documented human rights violations of sex workers in Kenya (Open Society Institute 2008). She acted as consultant to various NGOs and UN Women on women's rights, gender and ending violence against women. For UN Women, she provided legal analysis in the first Women Situation Room in the 2013 general elections in Kenya.

MaryFrances is a member of the Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research, the Centre for Cultures of Reproduction, Technologies and Health, Sussex Crime Research Centre and Centre for Gender Studies. She was Law Representative on the PhD Committee of the Sussex Africa Centre.

Nominated for Sussex Law Ball Awards
- Welfare and Inclusion
- Innovation of the Year

Nominated for Sussex Awards