A Nation That Chose to Organise
Kalenjin Foundation is an elder and professional led, voluntary organisation serving the fifteen community Kalenjin nation.
“A people are known by the covenant they keep.”
Kipsigis, on trust
Kalenjin Foundation is an elder and professional led, voluntary organisation. We are not a project, a party, or a personality. We are a civic institution set up by the Kalenjin people, a highland nation of nine million in Kenya and its worldwide diaspora, to serve one another and to steward what has been entrusted to us for those who will come after. Our trustees, executive and volunteers give their time without salary, under the guidance of the Council of Elders and alongside professionals drawn from every field our work touches.
The house we live in
The Foundation is a public institution registered in Kenya and governed by a board of seven trustees, an executive of twelve, and a wider council of elders drawn from the fifteen sister communities of the Kalenjin nation. It is elder led in counsel, professional led in practice, and voluntary in spirit: no trustee, executive or contributor draws a salary from the Foundation for the seat they hold. The Foundation answers to the Council of Elders, and beyond it to the households that make up our people.
Our seat is in Eldoret. Our work lives in six counties of the Rift Valley. Our chapters gather Kalenjin women and men across North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, the Gulf, and Southern Africa. We speak Kalenjin, Kiswahili, and English by turns, and we welcome partners in every language they bring. The pages that follow set out, in order, who we are and how we mean to hold the trust.
What each page in this section holds
- 01
Our History
The long walk from the ancestor rivers to the highlands, and from the highlands to today.
- 02
Our Purpose
The four callings the Foundation has accepted from the elders and the households.
- 03
Our Mission
What we do, said plainly and without evasion.
- 04
Our Approach
How we make decisions and why they hold when nobody is watching.
- 05
Our Timeline
A chronological record of the nation and the Foundation.
- 06
Our Board
The seven trustees, named and accountable.
- 07
Our Executive
The twelve who carry the daily work.
- 08
Our Partners
The coalitions we keep, in four rings.
- 09
Our Financials
Every shilling, published quarterly.
“We build institutions we ourselves would submit to.”