Deo joined the GI-TOC in August 2021 as a consultant working on regional research on the impact of cattle rustling on stability in West Africa, with a special focus on Mali and Nigeria. Apart from hitting the ground running with the organized crime hotspot mapping project for West African countries, he is also responsible for coordinating the civil-society observatory of illicit economy in the region, with specific focus on Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Togo.

After 17 years with BBC Monitoring as a political analyst, Deo has joined the EU-funded ENACT project at the Institute for Security in 2017 as the project’s regional organized crime observatory coordinator for Eastern Africa. As a researcher on transnational organized crime with ENACT, his contribution to the Vanishing Herds paper led to the review and ratification of the Mifugo Protocol, a regional instrument on cattle rustling, which had been in limbo for over 10 years. While at ENACT he also contributed to the Organised Crime Index.

He holds a Masters degree in international studies from the University of Nairobi and a second one in French language and linguistics from Kenyatta University in Nairobi.