James Nandi
James Nandi, a Kenyan public administrator has turned the remit of an Assistant County Commissioner into an engine of ground-level renewal. Posted to Murang’a in 2019, he swapped the usual security briefings for kitchen-table diplomacy, persuading an infamous local brewer to trade chang’aa stills for a dairy shed, then securing micro-credit and veterinary support that lifted the family from subsistence to daily milk deliveries and reconciled a decade-long domestic rift. Nandi has replicated that template of personalised intervention and structural aid across his jurisdiction: organising peace walks that diffuse clan tensions before they ignite, coordinating youth clean-ups that planted 5,000 trees in Kieni East, and brokering partnerships with vocational colleges to channel at-risk teens into automotive and ICT courses.
Honoured in Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 list (2021) for mentoring civil-service interns as rigorously as he audits county budgets, Nandi views public office as “the front line of dignity.” He is now rolling out a mobile service day that will bring ID registration, health screenings and agronomy advice to remote villages on a rotating schedule, while lobbying Nairobi for a data dashboard that tracks social-impact metrics alongside crime rates. His goal is clear: ensure that every policy directive arrives in people’s lives as tangible opportunity.