Four Kenyans among 2019 Tutu Leadership Fellowship cohorts

Four Kenyans are among 23 of Africa’s highest potential young leaders selected to take part in the prestigious Tutu Leadership Fellowship for 2019.

The Tutu Leadership Fellowship for 2019 cohorts were selected from amongst nearly 250 nominees and represent 12 different African countries, ranging in age 25 to 39 years of age, and span several industries. The selected candidates demonstrate the incredible wealth and breadth of leadership talent that exists in Africa’s youth.

Those chosen from Kenya are Mical Muganda Agina, the Group Head of Tax at Centum Investment; Edwine Barasa, the director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Nairobi; Dr Angela Gichaga, CEO of the Financing Alliance for Health, which serves Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance globally in building resilient and sustainably-financed health systems; and Vivian Onano, a social entrepreneur and seasoned humanitarian, who is recognised as an emerging woman leader with the courage to lead change on the African continent.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t Centum, Mical’s role includes Tax Planning and Management; and recently, to support of the Director of Legal Affairs & Group Company Secretary adding legal, tax and company secretarial support to the group.

Over the period of her service at Centum, she has been instrumental in key initiatives including participation in the Centum Bond Issue for over Ksh 6 billion ($60 million); negotiation and completion of investment agreements with business partners in the Two Rivers project; and acquisition of a majority stake at K-Rep Bank Limited.

Early in her career she worked as a legal intern at the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU) where she helped the legal and justice division on infringement of human rights, extra-judicial killings and torture cases through media monitoring, and took part in campaigns and advocacy against torture.

She is passionate about mentorship of youth and has been involved in various community engagements to listen to the youth; support initiatives for their well-being; and positively impact their lives with mentoring and coaching. She is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, with eight years post-admission experience; having attained a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Nairobi. She earned an MBA in Strategic Management from the University of Nairobi in 2013. She is also a Certified Public Accountant of Kenya (CPA-K) and a Certified Public Secretary of Kenya (CPS-K).

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]arasa heads the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU) at KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Nairobi and co-chairs the health systems research theme of the programme.

He is a health economist and health financing specialist with 14 years of experience in research, an advisory capacity, and practice in Kenya and the broader Sub-Saharan African region. He has a PhD in health economics (University of Cape Town), a Master’s degree in Health Economics (University of Cape Town), and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy (University of Nairobi).

His interests include health financing, equity and efficiency analysis in healthcare, the economics of non-communicable diseases, economic evaluation of healthcare interventions, measuring health systems’ performance, and health system governance. Edwine provides health financing and broader health system technical support to the Kenya Ministry of Health.

He is currently a member of the Kenya Health Benefits Advisory Panel and the taskforce for the reform of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). Edwine also provides health financing technical advisory support to several international development organizations, including the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), with a focus on the broader Sub-Saharan African region including Kenya, Ghana, Somalia, Malawi, Madagascar, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Mozambique, and Egypt.

[dropcap]D[/dropcap]r Gichaga’s firm serves ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance globally in building resilient and sustainably-financed health systems. It does so through increasing and better allocating existing resources, while tapping into the private sector through innovative finance.

She has an undergraduate degree in Medicine, Master’s in Health Economics and Policy, and a Fellowship in Public Sector Management. Angela has served as a clinician, health administrator, policy maker, academic, consultant, and government advisor. She served as a District Medical Officer of Health and at a hospital in charge in both Meru and Garbatulla, leading 150 multi-disciplinary team members.

She then joined the the Ministry headquarters, where she supported health financing policies, strategies and initiatives. Angela received the Australian Leadership Awards for Africa in 2012 and President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship in 2014 in recognition of her exemplary leadership within the civil service and operational track record of excellence.

From civil service, she joined McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub (ADH) working on socio-economic and development issues across Africa before joining the Financing Alliance for Health. She was named one of Fortune’s World’s Greatest Leaders in 2018.

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[dropcap]V[/dropcap]ivian is a social entrepreneur and seasoned humanitarian who is recognized as an emerging woman leader with the courage to lead change on the African continent. She has a strong commitment to education, women’s economic empowerment, and leadership. Vivian has a deep interest in re-defining Africa’s growth and development and creating an inclusive world where women and youth can play an important role.

She is a youth advisor to Global Education Monitoring Report at UNESCO, and the Founder/Director at Leading Light Initiative. New African Woman Magazine featured her in 2016 as one of the 30 under 30: Faces Changing Africa Now and Forbes Woman Africa profiled her as One to Watch. Vivian is a recipient of the 2017 New African Woman on the Rise Award, and 2016 MTV Africa Re-Imagined Award.

In 2015, she was honored with Mrs. Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” award by MORE Magazine for her advocacy work on girls’ education. Vivian is currently the vice-chair of the Global Youth Empowerment Fund Board of Trustees; is a Nutrition International board director; Women Deliver board member; a member of the Africa Shared Value Leadership Council; and a Concordia Africa advisor.

Vivian is a respected speaker who often speaks on global education, gender equality, youth empowerment, and international development. She has presented at the United Nations General Assembly, World Innovation Summit for Education, The Global Education and Skills Forum, Concordia Summit and the Clinton Global Initiative, among others.