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Profile: Kennedy Odede, from a 20-cent football in Kibera to the UN’s Mandela Prize.
Kennedy Odede grew up in Kibera and was living on the streets by the age of ten. He spent 23 years in Kibera.
How it started
In 2004 he was earning about a dollar a day in a factory. He saved 20 cents, bought a football, and used the games to bring neighbours together to talk about the problems on their streets. That group became Shining Hope for Communities, SHOFCO.
What followed
2007: met Jessica Posner, now his wife and co-author.
2009: the Kibera School for Girls opened with 40 pupils.
2010: Margaret's Safe Place opened for survivors of gender-based violence.
2015: the SHOFCO Urban Network was formed with 3,000 members.
2018: SHOFCO won the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.
2024: named on the TIME100 list.
He studied sociology at Wesleyan University in the US and co-wrote the bestseller Find Me Unafraid.
The Mandela Prize
In 2025 the United Nations named him a winner of the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, which is given every five years, together with Brenda Reynolds of Canada. It was celebrated on Mandela Day, 18 July 2025. He told the UN: "People living in informal settlements often don't feel seen. This award is for them."
In November 2025, Mijikenda elders made him a Kaya Elder at Kaya Similani Hill in Kwale.
SHOFCO today
SHOFCO runs education, health, water and sanitation, savings, gender and libraries programmes. In August 2026 The Star reported that its network's elections in Kilifi drew more than 5,000 members. SHOFCO's own figures for how many people it reaches vary between its pages, from 2.4 million a year to about 4 million.
Sources: SHOFCO, SHOFCO: our story, United Nations, UN Mandela Prize 2025, Capital FM via allAfrica, The Star
That was a Kibra News Network report, read by an A I voice.
Kennedy Odede grew up in Kibera and was living on the streets by the age of ten. He spent 23 years in Kibera.
How it started
In 2004 he was earning about a dollar a day in a factory. He saved 20 cents, bought a football, and used the games to bring neighbours together to talk about the problems on their streets. That group became Shining Hope for Communities, SHOFCO.
What followed
2007: met Jessica Posner, now his wife and co-author.
2009: the Kibera School for Girls opened with 40 pupils.
2010: Margaret’s Safe Place opened for survivors of gender-based violence.
2015: the SHOFCO Urban Network was formed with 3,000 members.
2018: SHOFCO won the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.
2024: named on the TIME100 list.
He studied sociology at Wesleyan University in the US and co-wrote the bestseller Find Me Unafraid.
The Mandela Prize
In 2025 the United Nations named him a winner of the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, which is given every five years, together with Brenda Reynolds of Canada. It was celebrated on Mandela Day, 18 July 2025. He told the UN: “People living in informal settlements often don’t feel seen. This award is for them.”
In November 2025, Mijikenda elders made him a Kaya Elder at Kaya Similani Hill in Kwale.
SHOFCO today
SHOFCO runs education, health, water and sanitation, savings, gender and libraries programmes. In August 2026 The Star reported that its network’s elections in Kilifi drew more than 5,000 members. SHOFCO’s own figures for how many people it reaches vary between its pages, from 2.4 million a year to about 4 million.
KNN Newsroom is the staff byline for stories written, rewritten and edited at the Kibra News Network desk. Where a story credits an outside outlet, the original source is linked at the foot of the piece.
