The following is from a speech given by KEF founder and executive director, Bradley Broder, on March 9th, 2012 at FHI360's Human Development Conference in Washington, DC. --- I learned my first lesson in global development as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya over a decade ago.  It was a simple enough lesson in “needs assessment”, which is essentially an activity that attempts to identify so-called “actual needs” from “perceived needs” within a given community.  For example, a Kenyan villager once said to me that his … [Read more...]

Anderson is a former KEF scholar who started his own IT company two years ago in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, before it became the newest country on the planet.  Today, Anderson has achieved a level of comfort and success that allows him to lend me his Subaru Forester when I am in Kenya, saving the KEF money on a rental.  He appreciates the chance that KEF gave him to get a degree in computer science.  He worked hard in school and it took him places.  I, on the other hand, appreciate the free car.   And as I drive it hard on Kenyan … [Read more...]

Returning to Kenya, as I do every six months or so, I am met each time with equal amounts of astonishing progress and frustrating backwardness.   I measure progress by urban growth (excluding slums), so the large number of construction cranes that are responsible for erecting mall after mall across the Nairobi landscape indicates to me impressive growth on both an economic and psychological level for Kenyans, boding well for graduates of the Kenya Education Fund. But the boundary between city and rural areas (aka “bush”) is stark, both … [Read more...]

Throughout the world, demand for education far outweighs its supply.  The short supply of education is not due to a lack of schools or too few teachers.  It is due poverty.  The average Kenyan earns less than $2 a day, which is about what it costs per day to educate, room and board one high school student.  For a poor mother or father, the choice to spend those two dollars on food or a child's education - literally, their present or their future - is really no choice at all.  Food wins every time. So what does it mean for the future of … [Read more...]

I wish to kick off the KEF blog with some musings from KEF Scholar, Dominic Muchema about the state of education in Kenya.  I hope his words will touch you as they have touched me... Kenya is a third world state that is struggling to extricate itself from over-dependence on donors and borrowing so it can be able to take care of is national needs independently. Of course this would start with the empowerment of the citizens. There are several empowerment tools, but education stands tall above all. If Kenya can afford her children a decent … [Read more...]