Zarina Patel is best known for her almost single handed effort to save Jeevanjee Gardens in Nairobi from Moi regime-sponsored land grabbers in 1991 — one of the seminal moments in the wave of pro-democracy protests that marked the beginning of that decade. An author and historian as well as a human-rights activist and environmentalist with a long term interest in Kenyan South Asian affairs, she is the granddaughter of Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, known as the father of South Asian politics in Kenya. She was one of the founding members of the Asian African Heritage Trust and a member of the Ufungamano initiative for Constitutional Change in Kenya. In April 2003, the NARC government appointed her to serve on the task force for the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. She is the author of three books on the contribution of South Asians to Kenya’s freedom struggle — Challenge to Colonialism, a biography of AM Jeevanjee, Unquiet, a biography of trade union activist Makhan Singh, Stormy Petrel, about journalist-activist AM Desai — as well a multitude of writings in the media on politics, culture and gender mainstreaming. She is the managing editor of AwaaZ Magazine and cofounder of the newly formed Kenyan Asian Forum.