Kenyan blogger, Florence Kamaitha is among 4 Kenyans awarded a Kshs. $25,000 grant by the United States African Development Foundation (USADF) to start-up/expand their business at the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) conference in Washington. The other 3 winners are Eric Muthomi, Mshila Sio, Florence Kamaitha and Hope Mwanake.
Florence Kamaitha blogs at Her Business, where she tlaks matters affecting women in the business world and gives advice on the same. She also talks about life in general as concerns women in Kenya and across Africa.
Here is a brief bio on all the 4 Kenyan winners.
Florence Wamuyu Kamaitha, Kenya, Business & Entrepreneurship University of Texas-Austin
Florence Kamaitha has over three years of experience distributing sanitary towels and undergarments to underprivileged girls to reduce absenteeism from school during their menses. Currently, Florence serves as a Resource Mobilizer where she focuses on raising funds to provide education for girls and provide free surgical camps for the poor. Florence is skilled in resource mobilizing, communication, negotiation skills, and social media campaigns. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Communication and Marketing. Upon completion of the Washington Fellowship, Florence will create the first eco-friendly, affordable, and good quality sanitary towels made from banana stems to provide to girls to keep them in school. She will work with different county governments to lobby and have them include a budget for sanitary towels so each girl will never miss school during her menses
Kenneth Eric Muthomi, Kenya, Business & Entrepreneurship , Clark Atlanta University
Kenneth Muthomi is an award winning entrepreneur that has over five years of experience working in food security and post-harvest losses. Currently, Eric is the founder and CEO of Stawi Foods and Fruits Limited, which manufactures highly nutritious flours made from locally-sourced raw materials. The products include innovative gluten free banana flour made from organic bananas procured from two women’s groups in rural Kenya. Eric holds a bachelor’s degree in Law and two certificates in Agribusiness Management and Enterprise Management. Upon completion of the Washington Fellowship, Eric seeks to use his new knowledge and connections to expand his business activities across Kenya and other countries and increase the uptake of raw materials from more farmers.
Hope Wakio Mwanake, Kenya, Business & Entrepreneurship, Yale University
Hope Mwanake is the co-founder of Trace Kenya Group, a vibrant community based organization that works with young people in addressing solid waste management issues in Gilgil, Nakuru County. She has over four years of experience as Project Leader for environment conservation at the grassroots level. She is an EIA/EA expert, member of Eastern Africa Water Association, and has been trained in project management by the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS. She won the Presidential Gold award for young people in 2010, MTV Staying Alive Foundation grant award in 2011, and RSSAF Green grant for environment in 2012. Upon completion of the Washington Fellowship, she plans to start a recycling venture making compost from organic waste, glass tiles from glass, and plastic poles from discarded polyethene bags and plastics. She also aims to mobilize many young people into social entrepreneurship as a means of livelihood throughout Kenya.
Mshila Mwakai Sio, Kenya, Business & Entrepreneurship, Dartmouth College
Mshila Sio is the founder and Director of Agua Inc. Kenya, an innovative water purification and wastewater treatment company dedicated to providing sustainable solutions throughout the continent. His approach advocates that the unique challenges Africa faces offer the required impetus to create pioneering solutions that can then be offered to the rest of the world. As a Washington Fellow, Mshila seeks to use the knowledge and connections obtained to further ventures into safe water provision by setting up local water treatment centers that will offer training entrepreneurship and renewable resources for stakeholders. He hopes to transform the way water is managed and accessed on the continent making it safely available for all.
The 4 were among 46 Kenyan YALI participants who we were selected from a candidate pool of over 5,000 Kenyan applicants. In total 500 Africans were selected to attend the conference.
We at BAKE congratulate the winners and wish them well in their endeavors.