Our Issues
The standing questions the Foundation is set up to answer, from dignity and unity to science, health, and stewardship.
“You do not sharpen a spear for a hare that is not there.”
Sabaot, on discipline
We name our issues carefully because we intend to answer for them. These are the questions we accept, in full public view, and against which our work should be judged. Each is held by a director, tied to a budget line, and reported on annually. We do not treat them as slogans. We treat them as debts.
How the issues are organised
The issues fall into four registers. Foundations of personhood: dignity, unity, faith and ethics. Instruments of a common life: governance, leadership, justice and peace. Engines of the future: education, science and technology, knowledge, livelihoods, resources and economy. Ground under our feet: land, environment, health, women and family, youth and sport, and the diaspora that carries us into the world.
Every register is anchored in a director, tied to a budget line, and paired with a public commitment against which our work can be judged.
Foundations of personhood
- 01
Dignity
How do we ensure every Kalenjin person, from the child on Mount Elgon to the elder in Kabartonjo, walks into any room in the world with their full worth acknowledged? Our answer is a rights and recognition programme: national and county advocacy, legal aid clinics, and a standing pledge that no member of our communities faces indignity in silence.
- 02
Unity
How do we keep the fifteen natural communities of the Kalenjin one household without silencing the many voices inside it? Our answer is an active Council of Elders, disciplined shared communications, an annual gathering that rotates by county, and a refusal to speak for the whole in the name of the few.
- 03
Faith and ethics
How do our churches, mosques, and traditional altars remain sources of moral seriousness rather than of division? Our answer convenes an interfaith table, publishes an annual ethics review of our own conduct, and holds our leaders to the covenants they preach.
Instruments of a common life
- 01
Governance
How do we practise transparent, accountable stewardship at every level, from a village savings group to the Foundation's own board? Our answer is published accounts, open meetings, independent audit, term limits, and a whistle blower channel that actually works.
- 02
Leadership
How do we form leaders who are competent, courageous, and answerable, not merely well spoken? Our answer is the Chumo Institute, a multi year formation programme for young leaders across the fifteen communities, and a mentorship covenant with elders in office.
- 03
Justice and peace
How do we heal boundary disputes, cattle raids, and post election wounds before they become new grief? Our answer is a permanent mediation service, elder councils trained in restorative practice, and a public peace calendar of the days and ceremonies that hold us together.
Engines of the future
- 01
Education
How do we prepare our children for a world of work and study that is changing faster than any generation before them? Our answer runs from mother tongue early childhood centres to bursaries at leading universities, with a dedicated girls' pathway and a returning graduate register.
- 02
Science and technology
How do we produce Kalenjin scientists, engineers, and builders rather than merely consumers of what others invent? Our answer is county STEM labs, a research grant for young investigators, and partnerships with African and global universities on climate, agriculture, and health.
- 03
Knowledge, traditional and modern
How do we hold the wisdom of our grandmothers and the tools of the present in one hand? Our answer is a living archive: recorded proverbs, ethnobotany fieldwork, oral history, and a translation programme that brings modern science into Kalenjin and Kalenjin knowledge into English.
- 04
Livelihoods
How do we move from subsistence to enterprise without losing what makes a Kalenjin household strong? Our answer involves cooperatives, savings groups, and enterprise finance keyed to household rhythms rather than urban ones.
- 05
Resources and economy
How do we build a Kalenjin economy that is prosperous, ethical, and rooted at home rather than extracted elsewhere? Our answer is a chamber of Kalenjin enterprise, an ethical investment charter, and an annual economic report that names what we own, what we owe, and where the money goes.
Ground under our feet
- 01
Land
How do we protect the forests, ridges, and valleys of our country against short thinking, and settle the boundary disputes that still divide neighbours? Our answer involves title, mapping, community forest associations, and an active mediation service between clans in dispute.
- 02
Environment
How do we hand on the water, soil, and forest in better condition than we found them? Our answer is a river by river, ridge by ridge programme of restoration, with elder led ceremony where our tradition asks for it and climate science where the data does.
- 03
Health
How do we build a healthy Kalenjin nation, from safe childbirth in Kapenguria to dignified ageing in Bomet? Our answer combines maternal and child health outreach, mental health first aid, non communicable disease screening, and a traditional medicine research desk that separates what heals from what harms.
- 04
Culture
How do our language, music, dress, food, and ceremony remain daily practice rather than museum pieces? Our answer is Rerta Rift, a cultural season across the six counties, a Kalenjin language board, and an artist and craftsperson fellowship.
- 05
Women and family
How do we honour the mothers, sisters, and daughters who hold the Kalenjin house together, and end the violence and exclusion that still shadow too many homes? Our answer is a women's leadership pipeline, safe houses in every county, and a family covenant signed by the Council of Elders.
- 06
Youth and sport
How do we honour the gift the Rift Valley has given the world in running, and turn it into futures for many, not fame for a few? Our answer runs athletics academies alongside vocational and higher education pathways, so an athlete's career is only one road among several.
- 07
Diaspora and global Kalenjin
How do we keep the Kalenjin abroad in living relationship with the home place, and receive their gifts of skill and capital with grace? Our answer is a diaspora council, an annual homecoming, and a returning professionals programme with real posts to come home to.
The shape of the commitment
“A question well held is half answered. A question well shared is already on its way home.”
How we choose
We do not add an issue because it is fashionable, nor drop one because it is hard. An issue enters this list when three tests are met: it matters to the fifteen communities in daily life, we have a credible plan to move it, and we are willing to be judged in public on the result.
It leaves the list only after the Board, the Executive, and the Council of Elders agree it has been carried far enough that others can hold it.