Kennedy Odede
Kennedy Odede is a Kenyan social entrepreneur who has turned a single soccer ball into one of Africa’s most influential grassroots movements. Raised in the Kibera slum, he founded Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) in 2004 with KES 1,000 he had earned from odd jobs. What began as a youth‐soccer group is now a nationwide network operating in 14 informal settlements and reaching more than 2.4 million people.
SHOFCO’s integrated model combines free girls’ schools, primary health clinics, aerial water systems that deliver safe, metered water, and economic‐empowerment hubs offering vocational training and micro-grants. During the COVID-19 pandemic, its 2,000-member community health-volunteer corps distributed over nine million litres of sanitizer, earning recognition from Kenya’s Ministry of Health and the WHO.
Odede holds a degree in sociology from Wesleyan University, where he studied on scholarship, and is co-author of the memoir Find Me Unafraid with his wife and SHOFCO co-founder, Jessica Posner Odede. A recipient of the 2018 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world’s largest accolade for non-profits, he also serves on USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid. His current focus is expanding SHOFCO’s social-enterprise arm, which installs solar micro-grids and creates green jobs, proving that community-led development can scale without losing its soul.