About me
For five years I worked with street children doing street visits for rapport building, counseling and rehabilitation. I would then organize for the street children to join the local schools and then do family visits for reunion. In five years that I worked in Dagoretti for Kids I was able to have 32 boys leave the streets, go back to school and re unite with their families through the help of well wishers. Currently five of them have completed high school and, two vocational courses while the others are still in school. To raise funds we carried a self portrait project, with my friend Patrick Shrank, in Dagoretti and Kawangware where the street children used art to express their experiences in the street. The artwork was exhibited in Milwaukee-USA and helped raise funds. It is while working with Dagoretti for Kids that I was appointed the assistant commissioner in Charge of youth program in Kiambu District. In that capacity I was able to raise membership recruitment from 1200 to 4000 through empowering of out of school youth to form scouting units called rover units. To date, Kiambu district has the highest number of organized and active rover units in Kenya carrying out community service projects and income generating activities. I also formed a rover unit called Changes Rover Crew.The organization objectives are empowering youth to serve their community and to play an active role in development through mentorship program, youth participation, HIV/AIDS awareness Program and volunteer program. The organisation took an active role in helping the internally displaced persons in Kirathimo camp after the post election violence. In August 2008 I received the Letter of Commendation Award from the President for good service to community.

I was then identified by Kenya Community development foundation and was trained on leadership and conflict resolution and social accountability. Through the training I have been able to train over 500 young leaders who have in turn trained others and hence creating a ripple effect. I was appointed the regional coordinator of Shabaa Youth leadership program which promotes value based leadership and civic engagement. Through the program I have been able to coordinate trainings on leadership and entrepreneurship through out Central province.

I also took an active role during the constitution process by organising meetings with youth to collect their views and recommendations to the committee of experts as well as engaging in discussions on in This is Louise Show on K24 in an effort of promoting civic education.

Am highly concerned about the continued deterioration of the status of youth in Kenya, who face growing levels of unemployment, poverty, conflict, epidemic diseases, functional illiteracy and substance abuse - among other social and economic challenges -despite global advances made in technologies, entrepreneurship development, medical research, leisure and recreation facilities;

My personal vision of Kenya is an empowered youth who take an active role in the enhancement of human dignity, equity, social justice, inclusiveness, human rights, and protection of the poor and disadvantaged groups in society, as indeed now enshrined in the new Constitution under Article 10 (b). This will lead to full realisation of potential by the citizenry without hindrance on account of poverty, poor education, parental background and other environmental constraints

To achieve this, I will seek to promote and advocate for access to information and economic empowerment of youth through entrepreneurship development. I will do this by organizing trainings on value based leadership and social accountability which will help raise the youth voice, civic engagement and promote networking. I will also advocate for more effective promotion of entrepreneurship among young women and men by the provision of better information on market opportunities, training in business skills, access to capital (credit and other financial services), mentoring by qualified persons, and other business support services.To achieve this there will be need to have empowered youth I will therefore help coordinate activities through youth leaders and government Ministries aimed at equipping youth with skills and boosting self esteem through interactive programs. A key role youth must play as active citizens is shaping public policy and the decisions that will affect them, their families and their communities. Acknowledging differences in political contexts, I will engage public officials to support youth and appreciate them as critical partners in development.

I am currently under a Pan African Fellowship for Social Justice and Human Rights.

Through the Kenya Scouts Association, Shabaa leadership program and other organizations that am actively involved in I will be able to share what I will learn in this fellowship through trainings and organizing service learning projects. I possess good skills in youth mobilization and I will use these skills in bringing together youth leaders towards understanding and achieving the objectives of this program. Youth empowerment is instrumental in promoting positive behavior change and youth participation. I will therefore strive to bring youth together regularly to share best practices in scaling youth empowerment. I believe networking and partnerships is key towards achieving these objectives .I will therefore strive to form more partnerships with organizations that support For five years I worked with street children doing street visits for rapport building, counseling and rehabilitation. I would then organize for the street children to join the local schools and then do family visits for reunion. In five years that... (more)