Alumni

Mr. Sudi Biko Matara is an all rounded public & private sector specialist with over 18 years of experience in strategy, sustainable business, social impact and climate change. Matara is a great advocate of participatory development and localization of solutions anchored on the needs and priorities of the communities. Wealth of experience in project management; networks and partnership building; gender, policy & advocacy; monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning; knowledge management; external relations; resource mobilization; establishing governance structures and systems; designing and implementing communication strategies for development.  Mr. Matara has considerable experience in managing complex and large development grants at the national and international levels cutting across sectors such as energy, environmental sustainability & climate change, food security, economic empowerment, health and education. He has managed programmes and initiatives in multi-region/continent and country levels covering Africa, Asia, Europe and North America regions.

Currently Mr. Matara is the General Manager of KTDA Foundation, Sustainable Business and Climate Change giving oversight to KTDA Group’s Corporate Social Investments as part of business sustainability. Mr. Matara runs a number of programmes targeted at creating resilience among smallholder tea farmers and their communities.  Mr. Matara was voted by the public as the Star Newspaper Person of the Year 2022/23, an award that recognises individuals who are implementing initiatives that are transforming positively the lives of communities. The same year KTDA was awarded by National Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR Awards) in March 2023 as the Most Inclusive CSR Initiative.

Thomas Odiambo is a Trainer and a Coach. He has a background in human resource management, systemic team coaching, strategic leadership, organisational development and psychology .His primary objective is to assist organisations in thriving as a whole by identifying and improving organisational practices, as well as training and mentoring personnel.

Henry Indangasi is a professor Emeritus, a folklorist as well as a literary critic. He is a regular columnist at Daily Nation writing on contemporary issues going on within the country. He is a celebrated literary critic with over twenty publications on various topics in the field of literature. Je has been very instrumental in strengthening the relationship between SOKA University and The University of Nairobi.

Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira is a Professor Emeritus of Literature, a creative writer and critic. She has published widely in the areas of Oral Literature, Culture, governance, constitution making, women's and Gender issues. She is an expert on issues of governance, devolution and theoretical approaches to gender analysis in areas of policy, programme design and implementation. In addition she is an expert in the areas of gender mainstreaming, planning and programming at institutional and programme levels, planning and evaluation. She was a Vice-Chair and a commissioner in Constitutional Review process (C.K.R.C), is a board member of International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), International Policy Analysis Research Institute (IPAR), a member of the Team of Eminent Persons (TEMP) advocating for gender responsive and peaceful elections in 2013. Has chaired many organizations including Women's Political Alliance-Kenya (WPA-K), Association of Women Research and Development and Kenya Oral Literature Association (KOLA) among others. She is the Director, African Women Studies Centre, University of Nairobi.

Dr. Rosemary Anyona is a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She previously taught and researched on Foreign Policy, IR, and ICM at the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies (IDIS) OF THE University of Nairobi.

Fred Okengo Matiang'i is a former Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government in Kenya. He assumed office on acting capacity after the sudden Demise of Joseph ole Nkaissery, making him hold two cabinet positions concurrently. He was appointed as the chairperson of the National Development Implementation and Communication Cabinet Committee. The committee is composed of all Cabinet Secretaries, The Attorney-General and the Head of the Public Service who acts as the secretariat. He had served as the Eastern Africa regional representative for the Centre for International Development, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, the State University of New York before being nominated as the Cabinet Secretary for Information Communication and Technology on 23 April 2013. He formerly taught at Egerton University and the University of Nairobi.

Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua is a Kenyan politician who is currently serving as the Deputy President of Kenya since 2022. He previously served as the Member of Parliament for Mathira Constituency between 2017 and 2022 as member of the Jubilee Party. He has previously served in various junior roles in government, including Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs & National Heritage, Personal Assistant to the Head of the Public Service, Personal Assistant to Uhuru Kenyatta, who was then Minister for Local Government and as a District Officer.

Daniel is an avid court room lawyer with time tested hands in some of the leading, complex and intensely demanding cases. He lectures Law at Moi University School of Law. He has successfully acted as Counsel in high value Commercial disputes in Kenya both in arbitration and litigation. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property from Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe. In addition to dispute resolution, Daniel has extensively been engaged in both local and International Commercial transactions where he has advised a cross section of clients on Intellectual Property, mergers, acquisitions, investment treaties and public international law concerns.

James Ogude is the Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria. He is the Professor of African Literature and Cultures and edited Ubuntu and the Reconstitution of Community. He is an “A2” rated researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF). He has just concluded a five year project on the Southern African philosophical concept of Ubuntu funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. He is currently leading a Mellon funded supra-national project involving the Universities of Ghana, Makerere, Cape Town and Pretoria. He is also the Director of the African Observatory for Environmental Humanities located at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria.

Mathew Adams Karauri is a former Politician who served as Tigania East MP for 20yrs till 2002 and Assistant Minister during Nyayo era for 10yrs. His most notable works include: The Way I Am- Autobiography, The Devil You Know, Rulers, Leaders and People- a philosophy, Waiting for New Dawn , Traveling Gods- Poems written between 1972 and 1999, Beautiful (Sic) People, and The Last of the Ameru: Baithile, an Epic Story and other Stories. He is majorly recognized for his legislative roles in the KANU era