01
Character is formed before office, not after.
By the time someone holds power, the arrangements that carried them there are already made. Formation has to happen earlier.
About
Kenya does not lack laws.It lacks people willing to use them.
We were founded in 2025, in the aftermath of the JKIA-Adani disclosures.
Uongozi is the Swahili word for leadership.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2025
- Headquartered
- Nairobi
- Board
- 9 members
- Core team
- 3
Where this came from
In July 2024, our founder Nelson Amenya published documents describing a proposed thirty-year lease of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Adani Airport Holdings. The agreement had been negotiated privately. The disclosure prompted months of public scrutiny, parliamentary and court challenges, and sustained threats against him. On 21 November 2024, the President announced the deal had been cancelled.
Kenya does not lack talent, and it does not lack laws. What it lacks is a supply of people who will use them when it is expensive to do so. Uongozi exists to build that supply, deliberately, ten people at a time.
July 2024
Documents on the proposed JKIA lease published
Aug–Nov 2024
Parliamentary scrutiny and court challenges
21 Nov 2024
The deal is announced cancelled
Sources
What we believe
02
Institutions outlive intentions.
Good people in weak systems lose. We teach the systems — procurement, public finance, audit, the constitution — not just the ethics.
03
Ten is not too few.
A hundred formed people entering public life over a decade, who know each other and can call each other under pressure, changes more than a thousand who never met.
Independence
We accept no funding from active political parties, sitting officeholders, or contractors of the Government of Kenya. Our donor list is published annually.
See our donors
What this means in practice
- No funding from political parties or their affiliates
- No funding from sitting officeholders
- No funding from government contractors
- Donor list published annually
Who runs it
Uongozi is run by three people. Curriculum is developed with academic advisers, teaching is done by practitioners, and governance sits with the board. Keeping the core team small is deliberate: the budget belongs to the fellows.
Nelson Amenya
Founder
Founded the fellowship and carries responsibility for its direction, its governance and its finances.