Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe (July 21 1969 - ) born Kenneth Roy Nichols (he legally took the surname of his wife, Ruth O'Keefe) is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War. He is a peace and justice activist known mainly for organizing an international group of volunteers to go to Baghdad in January of 2003, to act as human shields, known as the human shield action to Iraq, in the hope that this would avert the 2003 invasion of Iraq.