An abridged version of this article was published in the The Star Newspaper, 22-07-15 The establishment of a Taskforce to review the Public Benefits Organisations Act (2013) by Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru in November 2014 broke what was becoming a predictable tradition of “NGO legislation by ambush”. It was hoped that consensus could be built on any necessary changes. It was also hoped that the Act, already dormant for two years, would finally be commenced. Seven months fr

Session Purpose: By the end of the session, we will have; 1)   Reflected on the examples of leadership provided by Professor Wangari Maathai, President Kwame Nkrumah and President Julius Nyerere 2)   Discussed the relevance of achievement (all), Resilience (Maathai), Vision (Nkrumah) and Humility (Nyerere) for the contexts in which the participants come from Facts about Africa[1] One of the oldest civilizations flourished in Egypt Second fastest growing continental economy se

“We said that Kenyans had enacted the best and most progressive Constitution in the world. The struggle for this Constitution was by the civil society….”Hon. Fatuma Ali, MP “Regulation and accountability is important but let us … not take away the freedom and space within which the public benefit organisations act and operate.”Hon. Oyugi, MP “Alongside many of my colleagues here were the alumni of the civil society at one time…as we are trying to streamline those that are ver

In November, reporter Mark Namswa of Nairobi’s UP Magazine interviewed me for their special issue on community policing. Below is the full transcript of the interview. UP Magazine: What is the Kilimani Project? The Kilimani project began as a garden conversation by a few individuals who live, work and play in Kilimani in the middle of 2012. The original set of questions we asked were: What makes Kilimani unique? Why is it a community of choice for the 43,000 people that live