By Daniel Otieno, Kakamega
In the teeming heart of Kibera, Africa’s largest informal settlement, Kennedy Odede once scavenged for survival, sleeping on the streets from the age of ten.
Today, he stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s most revered leaders and thinkers. In April 2024, TIME magazine named him among the 100 Most Influential People in the World.
And now, in July 2025, he is set to receive one of the highest international honours : the United Nations Nelson Mandela Prize, an award that will be presented to him by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Launched in 2014, the Nelson Mandela Prize is presented once every five years to two outstanding individuals, one woman and one man, whose lifelong dedication to public service, justice, and human dignity mirrors the enduring legacy of South Africa’s iconic leader.
Odede’s journey from the margins of Nairobi to the marble halls of the United Nations reads like a modern-day fable. But for the man at the center of it, the story is not about personal triumph, it is about the community he serves.
“This award belongs to the people of Kenya. It belongs to the youth in Kibera who keep dreaming. It belongs to the mothers who rise before dawn to care for their communities,” Odede said upon learning of the honour. “Mandela showed us that leadership begins with listening. That’s what we do every day at SHOFCO.”
SHOFCO – Shining Hope for Communities is the grassroots movement Odede founded in 2004, born of one small but radical act. At 16, working at a factory earning barely enough to eat, he saved his wages to buy a soccer ball. The goal was simple: bring young people in Kibera together, if only for an hour of play. But that ball became the seed of something far greater.
From that act of hope, SHOFCO has grown into a nationwide network operating in 68 locations, reaching more than 2.5 million Kenyans annually. The organization provides clean water, healthcare, and education for girls, and economic empowerment programs in some of Kenya’s most underserved communities.
At its heart lies the SHOFCO Urban Network (SUN), one of Africa’s largest community-led development platforms. Through SUN, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans mobilize to solve problems together, from preventing disease outbreaks to responding to floods and fires.
Odede, now a New York Times bestselling author and adviser to institutions like USAID, the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the Obama Foundation, continues to live by the principle that leadership should emerge from the grassroots—not be imposed from above.
The UN Nelson Mandela Prize, awarded only once every five years, honours individuals whose work exemplifies Mandela’s legacy of justice, reconciliation, and human dignity. Odede becomes the first Kenyan man to receive the prize. It will be formally conferred during Nelson Mandela International Day at the UN Headquarters in New York this July.
“Kennedy Odede’s selection for the Nelson Mandela Prize is a powerful affirmation that the most transformative leadership often rises from the grassroots,” said Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, former World Bank Vice President for Africa. “His work through SHOFCO proves what we have long known: that communities are not passive recipients of aid, they are architects of change.”
Besides Mr Odede, the award will also be presented to Brenda Reynolds, a Status Treaty member of the Fishing Lake Saulteaux First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. UN officials said Reynolds was being recognised for her decades-long work in advancing Indigenous rights, mental health, and trauma-informed care.
They noted that in 1988, she had supported 17 teenage girls in Saskatchewan’s first residential school sexual abuse case. Later, she served as a special adviser to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), where she contributed significantly to shaping survivor support systems and trauma response frameworks.
Reynolds is most widely known for her role in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, Canada’s largest class-action settlement and for creating the Indian Residential School Resolution Health Support Program, a nationwide initiative that delivers culturally appropriate mental health care to survivors and their families.
In 2023, she was invited by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union to share her expertise on trauma and cultural genocide.
