•Odede was among 500 notable Kenyans who were nominated for the list which eventually led to 100 of them being selected as the winners.
Image: COURTESY
Shining Hope for Communities Founder and CEO Kennedy Odede has been named among the 100 most influential Kenyans of 2022.
In the report by Top 100 Kenyans, Odede was listed for his community service which include the distribution of food to the most vulnerable slum communities, and peace missions across Kenya ahead of the August 9 general election.
Odede was among 500 notable Kenyans who were nominated for the list which eventually led to 100 of them being selected as the winners.
Odede went through a vetting committee whose mandate is to go through each and every category and name on that list and vet them against certain parameters.
Shofco boss visited 28 counties in the run-up to the August 9 general where he organized football peace tournaments, community engagements and empowerment programs.
He was credited for peace in Kibera and Mathare slums after the announcement of the presidential results for using Shofco Urban Network (SUN) membership to preach peaceful coexisting among slum dwellers.
SUN boasts over 500, 000 members in Nairobi alone and over three million countrywide.
Odede founded Shofco in 2004 with a soccer ball and Sh20 and the organization has now spread across Kenya serving over three million people yearly.
The organization has seven programs which include Education, GBV Response, Women Empowerment, Community Advocacy, Sustainable Livelihoods, Healthcare and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).
Shofco established the first-ever clinic in Kibera in 2010 with just a handful of staff and volunteers to treat communicable illnesses.
By 2014, the number of patients had skyrocketed to over 300 per day, necessitating the creation of a major facility in Kibera and in 2015, expansion to Mathare.
With numbers rising, a need to be closer to the community gave rise to satellite clinics opening in neighbouring Manatha (2014), Kianda (2015), Subra (2017) and Makina (2017) in Kibera.
“The clinics were started from the idea that people should not die because of health care. Health clinics are very expensive to maintain especially in slum areas where demand is very high due to the large population.
“But we are very happy because we have supporters and partners who have made this possible, ” he said.
Odede, who grew up in abject poverty in Kibera, saw the challenge of water scarcity first-hand and he vowed to change the situation when he started Shofco in 2004.
“We used to have to walk several kilometres to get water, and would often suffer from water-borne diseases, as the underground pipes were contaminated with raw sewage,” remembers Odede.
It is for this reason that Shofco used a cutting-edge aerial piping system when it installed a water treatment facility in the slum which can pump up to 300,000 litres of water at a time to aerial pipes that connect to various water kiosks throughout the Kibera slums.
The water goes to 24 kiosks stationed at strategic points.
Members of the Kibera community are no longer walking several kilometres in search of this precious commodity, all thanks to Odede.
The aerial water piping system has now been expanded to Mathare slums in Nairobi.
The organization has also bought water trucks that distribute water to Nairobi, Coast and Nyanza region residents.
Shofco has also put up two schools in Kibera and Mathare slums under its Girls Leadership and Education Programme.
The schools are the brainchild of Odede, who set them up as a way of empowering girls from the slum community.
So far, the school in Kibera, which has over 400 students, has had pupils sit for KCPE in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 whilst in Mathare, 350 students from pre-primary to Grade 8 are already enrolled for learning.
Once admitted, the girls have access to a full scholarship.
Shofco has also put emphasis on gender-based violence (GBV) awareness and response services because of the overwhelming need and lack of services available.
“Resulting from an overwhelming need, we have added an emphasis on combating gender-based violence, violence awareness, and response services. Our caseworkers also do outreach in the community to educate and empower them to achieve a future without violence,” Odede said.
Through its SUN, the organisation has brought together individuals and households through social groups run independently and organizes them to actively seek tangible change in their community and society at large.
Odede, a graduate of Wesleyan University in the United States, was also recognized by President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2020 for reaching slum residents through the provision of water, soaps, tests and food at the height of Covid-19 pandemic.