The support provided by members of the African Leadership Network, including Tunde Folawiyo, has enabled the African Leadership Academy to guide and nurture many talented and capable young people. One such example is Eddy Gicheru Oketch, an ALA graduate who is currently a student at Trinity College Hartford.

Whilst the ALA offers its students a well-rounded education, it also encourages them to focus their efforts on ending conflict and poverty around Africa. This is precisely what Eddy has done, through the establishment of the PAD (Peace for Africa and Economic Development). Despite his hectic study schedule, and his new life in the USA, this student chose to spend his summer holiday working with the rest of the PAD team in Kenya.

The organisation aims to boost the Kenyan economy, learn more about the root causes of underdevelopment, and to encourage young people to be more accepting of different ethnicities. The ultimate goal of the PAD is to not only support Kenya, but to create prosperity and peace all across the African continent – a similar sentiment to that of the African Leadership Academy. Using the knowledge he acquired whilst attending the academy, Eddy and his team at the PAD have worked on identifying young people’s specific talents and interests, and helping them to use those talents to develop projects which will improve both the economy, and the overall standard of living in Kenya.

Eddy was inspired to establish the PAD whilst he was still an ALA student. After the episodes of violence that followed the election in Kenya, during which approximately 42,000 houses and businesses were destroyed and over 1,200 people were killed, Eddy decided to take action to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again. He recognised that this conflict was primarily the result of the prejudice which existed amongst Kenya’s ethnic groups, and the younger people’s lack of involvement in the economy. This is why much of the work which the PAD does focuses on economic youth empowerment, as it is now understood that this is the most effective way to protect the younger population from tribal and political manipulation.

This ALA graduate’s efforts have not gone unnoticed; just recently, at the Kenya Diaspora Conference, Linus Gitahi, the CEO of the Nation Media Group, presented Eddy with an award for all of his work. It is hoped that, with the help of the ALA’s Global Advisory Board – a collection of many members including Tunde Folawiyo – more and more students at the academy will be inspired by Eddy’s work, and will follow in his footsteps, creating similar projects in their own home countries.