Mugwe Manga
Kenyan entrepreneur and renewable-energy strategist Mugwe Manga is betting that the heat beneath the Rift Valley will power Africa’s low-carbon future. In 2015 he co-founded Olsuswa Energy, a geothermal developer converting volcanic steam into baseload electricity and carbon-mineral-storage sites; the start-up’s resource model vaulted it into the London Stock Exchange ELITE network’s “Future Shapers” top-50 list in 2020 and put Kenya on investors’ radar for negative-emissions projects. Manga’s influence now spans boardrooms and think-tanks: he advises ICEA Lion Insurance on climate-risk products, guides VisionFund Kenya on green-asset lending, and serves as Special Advisor on Power and Climate at The Rockefeller Foundation, where he shapes grant portfolios for distributed generation across the continent.
A qualified economist who wrote The Energy Future of Africa, Manga treats storytelling as policy leverage, distilling geothermal finance and carbon-credit mechanics for audiences from Nairobi classrooms to COP plenaries. Named a 2023 Tutu Fellow for transformative leadership, he mentors energy-tech founders and lobbies regulators to clear drilling bottlenecks that slow gigawatt-scale projects. Next on his agenda: closing a landmark deal to inject captured CO₂ into spent reservoirs at the Olsuswa field and launching a pan-African fellowship that trains engineers in subsurface carbon storage, proof that Kenya’s volcanic spine can anchor both climate resilience and economic growth.