4 Kenyans qualify for global leadership programme in UK

Four young Kenyans were declared winners in the final selection for the British Council’s Future Leaders Connect Programme 2018 held at Radisson Blu Hotel in Nairobi on Thursday 16, August 2018.

The programme is a flagship project of the British Council and seeks to connect, empower and equip young people between 18 to 35 years from 11 countries across the globe with policy and leadership expertise.

Applications for the programme opened up in February 2018 and attracted 1,321 submissions from Kenyan youths who hoped to secure one of the four slots allocated for Kenya in the global programme. Following extensive interviews, seven candidates were shortlisted for the final round of selection.

One candidate dropped out at the final stage leaving six contesters to fight for the coveted slots.

JUDGES
Candidates had exactly four minutes to convince a panel of three judges alongside a selected audience of 200 people why their policy idea would make the world a better place.

The Judges of the day were Irũngũ Houghton, Executive Director of Amnesty International Kenya, TerryAnne Chebet, Chief Executive Officer of Fanaka TV and the new British Council Country Director Ms Jill Coates.

The event started at 6pm with the guest list mainly composed of stakeholders in various policy making circles. Friends and loved ones of the contestants could be spotted giving last minute hugs and pats on the back to wish them luck just moments before everyone assembled for the start of the formal part of the event.

BRILLIANT IDEAS

The six contestants took to stage with mastered confidence. They had come so far and in the next few moments, four of them would become the newest members of the British Council’s Future Connect Programme.

From their presentations, it was evident that they were indeed the crème de la crème of the 1000 plus submissions for 2018.

Their ideas were brilliant and covered key areas including Universal Health Coverage, Food Security, Children’s welfare, Entrepreneurship and Environment; the judges truly had their work cut out for them.

They managed to articulate their global policy solutions to the crisis being faced in the world today in under four minutes.

After each presentation, the moderator opened the floor for questions; allowing the judges to go first followed by members of the audience.

Although the questions were grilling to say the least, contestants had done their homework and answered each question satisfactorily.

Take for instance one of the contestants, Sahil Shah. He explained how the hype created on mass entrepreneurship was doing more harm than good to economies of different countries. His policy idea was to have some sort of gate-keeping on entrepreneur venture so as to only empower ventures that showed potential for growth and not just every other feel –good concept.

On the face of it, it appeared as though implementing such a policy would kill small enterprises including start-ups.

When this concern was posed to him; he painstakingly shared with the audience statistics of start-ups in Kenya that were haphazardly set up and never got to see their second birthday. He demonstrated that this was the undoing of mass entrepreneurship.

The British Council had thoughtfully organised live streaming of the event allowing members of the public to follow and contribute to the event’s happenings. Footage of the presentations is available on the British Council’s Facebook page as well as on their YouTube channel.

Finally, it was time to announce the winners; a moment that had been greatly anticipated by all in attendance including the virtual audience.

As the judges took a moment to deliberate and consolidate their decisions, the moderator gave us a glimpse of what awaited the successful four by projecting on screen past experiences of the Future Leadership Connect programme 2017 cohort.

In 2017, there were more slots that saw six Kenyans young leaders from 10 other countries in the programme. The six were Simon Wanda, Simon Ndirangu, Carol Radoli, Victoria Mwirichia, Tim Kipchumba and Christine Mwangi. They visited the UK Houses of Parliament and met the Elders, a group of prominent international figures including former UN Secretary General, the Late Kofi Annan. While sharing their experience , the cohorts cited networking, inspiration and leadership nurturing among the greatest benefits of being in the Future Leadership Connect Programme.

WINNERS

The clip ended just in time as the judges gave the moderator the results for the final selection. The four winners for the evening were:

MCA Shamsa Omar. Her global policy idea is to fight gender based violence through effective local intervention and women empowerment. Shamsa currently serves the chairperson of Gender, Culture and Community Service Committee in Wajir. She holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Peace Building and Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia and BA in Sociology from the Moi University. Her experience gained through education and networking with people from all walks of life is the fuel that fans her zeal to end violence against women and girls through social and economic empowerment.

Desma Natome, a policy analyst with Kenya Revenue Authority. Her policy idea is to ease environmental degradation through what she refers to as carbon tax or pollution tax on environmental polluters heavily so as to discourage them from degrading the environment. Someone from the audience challenged her to consider a ‘nudging’ as opposed to ‘punishing’ approach to the tax such that people got rewards including tax reliefs if they used adopted environmental friendly practices thus nudging them to protect the environment. She seemed to concur with that suggestion. Desma holds a BSc. in Financial Economics and a KESRA Kenya School of Revenue Administration (KESRA) training in Taxes.

Policy economist Sahil Shah wasthe only man representing Kenya in Future Leadership Connect programme 2018. His idea is to help people build sustainable wealth through fewer but high impact enterprises. In his line of work as the Project Lead of the Kenya Business Guide, a private sector development think-tank aimed at improving the business environment in Kenya, he has become quite conversant with African history, politics, development and economics and a particular expertise on East African economics. It is this understanding that prompted the idea of revolutionising entrepreneurship. Sahil holds a BA in History from the University of Bristol, UK; a Master’s in Public Policy and Management from the Strathmore University Business School and a Certificate in Global Leadership from the New York University Wagner School of Public Service, USA.

Dr Stella Bosire. ShesupportsPresident Uhuru’s Big Four Agenda on Universal health with the idea to make healthcare accessible to members of the LGBTQI (Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) in the spirit of ensuring healthcare for all. Dr Bosire is passionate about delivering quality services from the perspective of Human rights, Law, and public health agenda. She holds a Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Nairobi, a Master of Science in Global Health Policy from the University of London (LSHTM) and a Master in Business Administration- Healthcare Management from Strathmore Business School.

The four finalists will join fellow cohorts who won in the 11 countries that took place part in the 2018 programme including Canada, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tunisia, USA plus the four nations of the UK: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as they travel to UK in October, 2018 to meet with heads of policy organisations, policymakers and British MPs.