Ms Esther Mwaniki. She was chosen to take part in the 2019 Obama Foundation Fellowship. PHOTO | COURTESY
Ms Esther Mwaniki has been selected as a 2019 fellow for the Obama Foundation Fellowship.
She
is among 20 fellows selected from 10 countries around the world, and
one of only three Africans. The other two Africans are Mr Ayman Sabae
Shamseya from Egypt and Ms Dedo Baranshamaje from Malawi.
Ms
Mwaniki, 36, is the founder of Lapid Leaders Africa, a leadership
programme that equips new graduates and final-year university students
with skills to help them cope beyond university.
These skills include self-awareness, creativity and innovative thinking and building a Pan-African mindset driven by values.
“It’s
our responsibility as the older generation to raise the younger
generation and selflessly empower the next leaders,” Ms Mwaniki says of
the programme.
LEADERSHIP
The
other fellows selected are doing work around mental health, education,
financial empowerment for communities, social entrepreneurship, climate
justice and healthcare delivery.
“I applied for the
fellowship because Lapid had grown to a point where we are ready to
scale up. I wanted to work under, and around, people who would take the
programme across the continent. Youth leadership is a global agenda.”
So, what does she envision the programme will look like two years after the fellowship?
“That’s
a good question,” Ms Mwankiki says as she pauses to think. “I’d like us
to have reached more young professionals, even the ones who are already
working. I’d also like the programme to be online. I’d also like us to
build the systems and structures that will accommodate our scaling up.”
Esther
worked with PwC Kenya, a global professional services firm, from August
2004, after graduating Kenyatta University with a bachelor’s degree in
accounting, to 2011 when she quit to form Lapid.
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