Dr. Kennedy Odede Receives 2025 UN Nelson Mandela Prize for Community-Led Work in Kenya
New York, The Gulf Observer: Dr. Kennedy Odede, the founder and CEO of Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), has been awarded the 2025 United Nations Nelson Mandela Prize in recognition of his outstanding contributions to community-led development in Kenya.
The award was presented during a formal ceremony at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York on Friday, as part of the global observance of Nelson Mandela International Day.
Established in 2014 by the UN General Assembly, the Nelson Mandela Prize is awarded once every five years to one man and one woman whose work upholds the values Nelson Mandela championed: reconciliation, dignity, service, justice, and grassroots leadership. Dr. Odede becomes the first Kenyan man to receive the honor and shares this year’s prize with Brenda Reynolds of Canada.
Presenting the award, UN Secretary-General António Guterres described Dr. Odede as a lifelong activist whose organisation unites communities across Kenya through essential services. “The organisation he founded now reaches 2.4 million people each year with essential services from education to water,” said Guterres. “As the United Nations celebrates 80 years, Nelson Mandela’s legacy of reconciliation and transformation continues to inspire and drive us.”
Born and raised in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest informal settlement, Dr. Odede began SHOFCO in 2004 with minimal resources while working in a factory. What started as a youth group has since evolved into a nationwide movement providing clean water, girls’ education, primary healthcare, gender-based violence support, and livelihood services to underserved communities.
SHOFCO now operates in over 90 locations across 35 counties in Kenya. Data presented during the UN event highlighted the organisation’s expansive impact, including reaching 1.3 million youth leaders, treating 156,000 children for malnutrition, supplying clean water to 40,000 households, and issuing over $10 million in microloans to low-income families.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Dr. Odede dedicated the award to the resilience and potential within marginalized communities. He called for a shift from traditional foreign aid models to locally-driven development. “In so many communities like Kibera, the gates of opportunity remain narrow. But at SHOFCO, we are not waiting for permission to belong to the future we are building,” he said. “We are demonstrating that transformative leadership emerges precisely from the places the world overlooks—not just to walk through existing gates, but to widen them for others.”
Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ekitela Lokaale, lauded the recognition: “The award recognises Mr. Odede’s work of promoting Nelson Mandela’s legacy of peace, dignity, social justice, and equality through SHOFCO’s work of empowering communities and individuals in Kenya.”
Beyond his leadership of SHOFCO, Dr. Odede has served on several global platforms, including the USAID Advisory Committee, the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, the UN International Commission on Financing Global Education, and the Obama Foundation’s Africa Leaders program.
The 2025 Mandela Prize joins a series of accolades Dr. Odede has received over the years, including the Echoing Green Fellowship (2010), Forbes 30 Under 30 (2014), the Schwab Foundation Social Innovator Award (2022), and inclusion in TIME’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2024.
This year marks only the third time the prestigious Mandela Prize has been awarded, further underscoring the significance of Dr. Odede’s contributions to advancing community dignity, empowerment, and justice—ideals that Nelson Mandela himself tirelessly fought for.
