We want to welcome OVF-Kenya director Kennedy Odhiambo and we appreciate his charting the way forward for OVF-K with a fresh perspective. Kennedy was selected by a transition team for OVF Kenya that has been put in place by Henry Migingo who was selected chairperson of steering committee by OVF USA after Kennedy Onyango’ resignation. This group also makes up the OVF-K board (steering committee). We appreciate the efforts and leadership of new OVF-K board Chairman Henry Migingo in helping to move OVF-K forward with a transition team. As part of this process, the new team began an evaluation process that eventually led to the selection of Kennedy Odhiambo who is now the new country director and is Secretary/Executive Director (African Centre for Human Advocacy).


Introduction of New Team:

a) Henry Migingo - OVF Kenya Board Chair and OVB Africa Coordinator. He is currently working with GAPCO Company Limited as Professional Accountant.
b) Kennedy Odhiambo - The Country Director for OVF Kenya. He is a Social Worker by Training with bias to Peace Building, Conflict Transformation and Community Development. He is working as Project Officer with The African Center for Human Advocacy.
c) Sophie Akinyi - works with Kenya Airports Authority as Telephone Operator. She is trained in Telephone Operations and Front Office Management.
d) Peris Wekesho - Is a Social development worker and works with World Hope on HIV/Aids programme.
e) Olang Oliech - is a trained Craft Mechanic and Pastor, he works in Ogiek Community where he also practice pastoral work.
f) George Ocholla - is a trained Teacher by Profession and employed by Teachers Service Commission (TSC). He works in Seme Location along the shores of Lake Victoria.
g) Tom Otigo - works as a logistician with Mission Aviations Fellowship - MAF.
h) Jeff Buderer - works with OVF/OVB in the US and has since co-opted to be part of the OVF Kenya Board member to represent the Head Office. This decision was reached up on to ensure the smooth coordination of information between the US and Kenya Hub.

Roles:

Executive Staff: There will two people that will be in charge of operations and strategy:
• Kennedy Odhiambo is to manage the affairs of OVF-K as director of day to day operations
• Henry Migingo is to oversee the direction of OVF-K as Board Chair

Project Managers: Each of the three projects will have a project manager:
• Kennedy Odhiambo will be in charge of the Kibera Project
• George Ocholla will be in charge of the Seme Project
• Olang Oliech will be in charge of the Seme Project


Project focuses:
After along peer review, the first board meeting resolved that the projects correspond to the OVF mission and therefore should be implemented as proposed in the Strategic Plans. One of the first priorities involves the registration of OVF Kenya. The meeting mandated the executive to find means of fund raising in order to support further analysis and involve community members for purposes of launching the unique projects in the three locations. The meeting further gave the Executive headed by Country Director a go ahead to consolidate all the technical aspects in consultation with the US Office, in initiating the projects including looking for partners to support the projects’ implementations. The first meeting discussed and reviewed the three proposed projects to be undertaken by OVF - Kenya in Kibera, Seme and Ogiek with the view to find out their viability in response to the OVF Mission and Vision of Bottom Up approach in Social development.


Kibera ICT Promotion Project - Located Southwest of Nairobi City centre, Kibera is the oldest of any slums in Kenya (Biggest in Eastern and Central Africa) with a population of about one million people from all of the Kenya’s ethnic communities living in about 300 acres of land. Kibera is densely populated; environments are the most degraded with massive uncollected raw garbage. There are no public social services provisioning like schools, hospitals, playground and most importantly communication systems. Most of the residents of this slum are either underemployed or unemployed. Those jobs that do exist are primarily in the form of “informal labor” with very meager pay. Because of the desperate economic situation in Kibera, there is fierce competition for very limited resources. The residents are frequently engaged in violent conflicts.

This project is justifiable because Kibera has produced very talented young people in areas of arts and sports. The community however has limited means of communicating to the outside world. Therefore, the potential of many of these very talented young youths are not realized. There is real need for projects that cultivate these talent youth so that they are able to pursue their careers and market their products. This project will only provide access to ICT tools in Kibera but also connect young people with global networks as well as promote distance learning, information exchange and youth engagement in Socio-economic activities in the global world. The centre will sustain itself and create jobs for some youth who will be employed to manage the centre. A minimal fee will be imposed on those using the facilities at the centre to sustain the cost of maintenance and rents.


Seme HIV/Aids and Life Promotion Project - Seme location is located in Western Kenya some 20 Km from the city of Kisumu just a few kilometers away from the shores of Lake Victoria. Seme falls under one of the worst hit regions by HIV/Aids pandemic and high rate of poverty in the country as revealed by Kenya’s Ministry for Planning and National Development in 2004. Agriculture (mainly subsistence and Cotton) and fishing industries that used to be the economic back-borne has virtually collapsed making life in Seme so miserable exposed to all manner of risks as people try to seek any alternative to survive including prostitution.

The project in Seme is intended to restore human dignity among the people by identify potential areas of economic empowerment; Training people in short term business management and provision of seed many to the affected and infected populace. The project will also proactively engage people, discouraging stigmatization and to seek relevant measures for preventing HIV/Aids through campaigns, counseling and economic empowerment programmes. The projects target to benefit 5,000 people directly or indirectly.


Ogiek Community Centre for Empowerment - The Ogiek are a minority ethnic group in the Kenya, living in several forests in the country. The problem of Ogiek started during colonial periods in Kenya when the British (Colonial) government took possession of the Kenya forests. The coming of new government in power in 2002 raised hopes of this minority tribe but from the look of things, life continues as normal with no serious changes made for the last two years. The Presidential decree in 2004 that the community should be issued with Land title deeds to provide security of tenure has never been implemented and there is no sign for it in the near future.

If approved, this project is expected to first, raise the consciousness on areas of land ownership and production; assist the community adopt positive attitude about land use, support training on subsistence farming, and help the people with seed capital to prepare their lands through small groupings/Self-help groups. Secondly, the project will promote and encourage adopting other alternative means of income generating like, bee keeping and crafting. The project will link Ogiek small-scale farmers and business people with markets abroad with ICT.


Recognition of Past OVF-K Team Efforts:
We would like to note that there were some real achievements in our work including the yearlong collaboration with the Global Education Initiative in which OVF-K served as a hub in the spring of 2004. We really appreciated how Francis worked so hard w/ his students (OVF-youth) to do the GEI program. The students were all so happy when Joy called them. It was obvious that Francis really put his heart to it and it was having an impact on the children. We regret that we were not able to consider the possibility of working with Francis Opiyo. However, he was part of Kennedy’s team and we felt it was best for both sides to make a clear and clean break with the existing OVF-K team and to fully devote our efforts towards building a new OVF-K that we feel is more in line with our approach and leadership style. We wish Kennedy and Francis well in their endeavors. We do not wish for ill feelings between them and us.


Reasons for Kennedy Onyango’ Resignation:
We want to clear the air about OVF-Kenya so that we can proceed in a way that is as transparent and open as possible. A difference in leadership styles and approaches has often left relations between OVF USA and OVF-K in disharmony. Much of this had to with differing interpretations of how to communicate. Recent issues and disputes concerning the outcome and management of the World’s AIDS Marathon only inflamed existing tensions. While we were not closely involved with the organizing of this event its outcome was of concern to us particularly because of concerns of how this was putting stress on people in our network both here in the US and in Kenya who were more closely and intimately involved in this project than we were. Another potential concern for us was how the questionable conduct of this event by OVF-K might put the integrity and reliability of OVF into question. Yet we do not for sure what actually transpired. We requested further explanation from Kennedy but we were not satisfied with the results of this communication process. This partially involved what we felt was Kennedy’s inability to provide our partners Planet Poz New Mexico with the information they needed for tax purposes in a timely manner.