Joseph Ogutu

Chairman

Joseph joined the Foundation as a trustee in 2008 and was appointed Chairman of the Foundation in June 2012. His satisfaction is derived from the bond that the Foundation nurtures and shares with people and communities it partners with. According to Joseph, it is through these partnerships that the Foundation enhances the capacity of communities to be self-sufficient in various fields.

Henry Kilonzo

Senior Manager, Foundations Programmes

Henry Kilonzo is the Senior Manager – Foundations Programmes. He is glad to be part of the positive changes being witnessed in the lives of the communities where Safaricom Foundation has been investing in. He believes that solutions to development challenges facing our communities are best known to them hence the need to value their participation.

Eunice Kibathi

Manager, Foundations Programmes

Eunice Kibathi is the Manager, Foundations Programmes. She enjoys organizing and participating in Safaricom Foundation events where she interacts with community members whose lives have been transformed.

Sophie Onyango

Manager, Foundations Programmes

I am passionate about working with young people to help them discover their passions and dreams. I like to understand the challenges they face, the situations they find themselves in and why they do what they do. Being part of a team that is positively transforming lives is incredibly satisfying for me as it gives me the opportunity to see first-hand just how much we can do to impact the lives of Kenyans.

David Mwaniki

Manager, Foundations Finance

David is enthusiastic about community inclusiveness and enhancing the quality of life of the communities the Foundation operates in. He works towards advancing SDG 10 which advocates for reduced inequalities and disparities in the society.

George Gathua

Manager, Foundations Finance

George finds his work fulfilling because it entails more than just accounting. He believes that every role that goes into his work ensures that lives are transformed in the community.

Gilbert Ebole

Manager - Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning

Gilbert Ebole is the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Learning Manager for the Foundations. His greatest fulfilment is achieved through monitoring projects to ensure they are aligned with the communities’ challenges and contribute towards improving their lives.

Nicholas Wechuli

Programme Manager

Nicholas enjoys using his skills in programme management to contribute to the Foundation’s mission of transforming lives that happens every day. Seeing communities’ positive change is inspirational. As a programme manager, Nicholas finds working with the Foundation team in project quality control fulfilling, with a self-drive to always look at the bigger picture in order to make the best decisions.

Dr Githinji Gitahi

Trustee

Dr Gitahi joined the Foundation as a trustee in March 2020.  He is the Group Chief Executive Officer at Amref Health Africa. He is a passionate advocate for pro-poor Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Dr Gitahi is the Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative for Universal Health Coverage. On December 12, 2018, Dr. Githinji received a presidential commendation, ‘Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS)’ in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the health sector.

Esther Masese Waititu

Trustee

Esther Waititu is the Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom PLC, a purpose-led technology company providing a wide range of services and solutions, including mobile voice, messaging, data, financial and converged services, and digital services that enable commercial and personal platforms as well as ecosystem partnerships. It is also the pioneer of M-PESA, the world’s most developed mobile money payment system.

As a seasoned business leader, Esther is passionate about the transformation of financial services for the community and has built a strong track record of transforming individuals and businesses on their respective growth journeys.

She joined Safaricom PLC in May 2023, having previously served as the Director, Corporate Banking at KCB Group where was responsible for the delivery of financial solutions to corporate clients in Kenya. Over the last 20 years she has gained a wealth of experience in the financial services industry where she held senior leadership positions in Standard Bank Group, Standard Chartered Bank and NCBA having worked and lived in Kenya, Zambia and South Africa.

Esther continues to lead economic empowerment activities for the community in her current role as the Chief Financial Services Officer at Safaricom PLC by providing strategic leadership and oversight for financial solutions via M-PESA. She leads the Financial Services team in the development of financial products, services and solutions for consumers, enterprises and corporates through M-PESA.

She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of East Africa, Baraton and a Master of Business Administration from University of Liverpool, UK. She is also an AoEC Accredited Executive Coach.

Fred W. Waithaka

Trustee

In his capacity as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Fred is responsible for Safaricom’s reputation management, public policy, legal and regulatory affairs.

He oversees development and implementation of Safaricom’s corporate investment strategy as well as overseeing internal and external communications. He also leads the development of a roadmap that will embed purpose in everything we do at Safaricom and among our stakeholders.

A commercially astute, pragmatic and solutions focused leader, Fred has over 20 years of post-admission experience in corporate and private practice. He joined Safaricom in 2017 as Head of Legal and Secretarial Services from Seacom Ltd where he initially served as Regional Counsel before growing to the Head of Legal position overseeing Seacom’s legal and regulatory affairs department with oversight of 7 countries. Prior to joining Seacom, Fred was Principal In-house Counsel at Safaricom for 6 years, and before that, he was a Legal Associate at Kaplan & Stratton Advocates.

He is passionate about growing his impact and has a demonstrated ability to cultivate an engaging team culture and in leading high-performance teams. In his previous role as Head of Legal, he led his team to win two coveted awards: the 2022 Africa Legal Awards Corporate Legal Department of the Year Award (the first time the award was issued to a corporate legal department outside of South Africa); and the 2018-19 Corporate Legal Department of the Year Award from the Law Society of Kenya.

He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL. B Hons) from the University of Bedfordshire. and a Postgraduate Diploma from the Kenya School of Law. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Commissioner for Oaths.

Fred was awarded the Chambers and Partners GC Influencer Award in 2021 and was listed in the 2017 Legal 500 Africa General Counsel Power List. He was also shortlisted for the 2023 Regulatory (non-financial services) award at Lexology’s 16th annual Global Counsel Awards.

Gladys N. Wambugu

Trustee

Gladys is currently the head of productivity in Finance. Her role entails developing ambitious plans to structurally transform the cost structure through driving efficiency in our operations to fund new investments as we seek to be a customer-obsessed, digital-first organisation.

She brings on-board over 16-years’ progressive experience in finance and general management.

Gladys holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Nairobi and is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK). She also holds various qualifications from Euromoney, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), Strathmore Business School executive leadership, and Breakthrough leadership mastery circle leadership program

Gladys is passionate about the community and has participated in several Pamoja initiatives with the most recent being construction of classroom for Mbaani Secondary school in Machakos county in 2019.She is also heavily involved in giving back to the community through fundraising for needy children to support in their education. She is passionate about mentorship, and she supports personal and professional development of colleagues and the wider community.

Lynda Kasina

Trustee

Lynda Kasina is a Project Manager at Nurisha Trust, an NGO committed to raising the standards of living of young women by empowering them with technical skills. On entering the education field, she supplemented her Biochemistry degree with a Master’s in Education Management. She is passionate about the integral formation of the youth and finds joy in watching young people from disadvantaged backgrounds regain their sense of dignity through education and work. To this end, she manages sustainability projects in partnership with various local and international NGO’s at Kibondeni College, one of the Projects of Nurisha Trust. In 2019, she was named to the TVET Advisory Committee for the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Eastern Africa.

Barack Odero

Trustee

Barack joined the Foundation as a trustee in September 2020. He is an Engineer by profession and heads Safaricom’s regional network implementation and operations. He is passionate about human empowerment as he believes every human being, given the right support, can find dignity and fulfilment in life. His ambition for the Safaricom Foundation is for it to be known as the go-to institution for these socio-economic pillars; maternal healthcare, youth empowerment and water and sanitation.

Jacqueline Meroka

Trustee

Jacquiline Meroka joined Safaricom in 2015 as the Senior Manager – Support Centre at the Call Centre.  In 2016, she moved to become the Senior Manager Consumer Care, a role she held for held for 2 years before becoming the Head of Consumer Care in 2018, a role she continues to hold today.  Before joining Safaricom plc, Jacquiline’s previous Managerial roles in Customer Experience were at Kenya Airways, Telkom Kenya, Airtel Kenya amongst others.  Her vast experience in Customer Experience spans 20+ years and she continues to contribute towards shaping the importance of CX in order to generate the required momentum and spark across strong and committed teams in her pursuit of building a Customer Centric World.

She is passionate about empowerment, to get rid of poverty and access to health.  She’s believes poverty eradication can be achieved through access to sustainable empowerment opportunities.

Karen K. Basiye

Director, Sustainable Business and Social Impact

Karen Basiye is a keen Sustainable Business Leader with over 15 years’ experience. Over the years she has worked at the National Environment Management Authority and Safaricom where she developed competencies in Leadership, Governance, Strategic Thinking, Sustainability Reporting (both Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), Social Policy, Corporate Environmental Management, Environmental Management Systems including ISO certification and Environmental policies, Environment Risk Management, Environmental Compliance Assessment, Energy and Climate change policies, Strategies for Sustainable Development, Integrated Product Policies, Sustainable Consumption and Production and integration of Sustainable Development Goals into company strategies as well as Corporate Philanthropy and Corporate Social Investment.

Karen holds a Joint Master of Environmental Science, Policy and Management degree from Lund University (Sweden), University of Manchester (UK), Central European University (Hungary) and University of the Aegean (Greece) www.mespom.eu and a Bachelor of Environment Science degree from Kenyatta University. She is also an alumna of the SBS Senior Management Leadership Programme

Currently, Karen Heads the Sustainable Business and Social Impact Department at Safaricom. She is passionate about the interplay between People, Purpose and Profits.

She has served at various University Councils, seats on the Governing Council of KEPSA as the Vice chair of the Environment Sector Board and is a Strategic Advisor on various Boards. She has been recognised as an SDG Pioneer by the Global Compact Kenya.

John Kinoti

Senior Manager, Foundations Finance

Am passionate about enhancing quality of lives in communities around me. A chartered public accountant by profession, I joined the Foundations team in October 2015. Always fulfilling our endless demands on financials and budgets information with a smile. I am extremely live, energetic and believe in living in the moment. I follow a very practical approach in life and am always willing to help the needy, meeting new people and making a difference in all communities that we work with.