Kathleen Stoup, District International Service

Join us as Kathleen Stoup,District International Service Chair, updates us on happenings in Kenya.  

Here's some history: 

Kenya is home to the first Rotary club in East Africa — the Rotary Club of Nairobi, founded in 1930 .

When the Muthaiga club was founded in 1997, there were 20 clubs in all of Kenya, including eight in Nairobi. The club took its name from the verdant Nairobi neighborhood that is in turn named for the medicinal Muthaiga tree.

Muthaiga is one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods, home to ambassadors, politicians, and other elites, but from the start, Manji wanted the new club to be different. It was the only one in town that met on Monday night, and members decided not to have a full meal. The club encouraged couples to join and made a point to promote women in membership as well as leadership. Members say this has resulted in one of the club’s greatest strengths: its diversity, in background and age as well as gender. The club has had a number of women presidents, one of whom happens to be Rotary Foundation Trustee Geeta K. Manek.

One of the club’s greatest strengths is its diversity, in background and age as well as gender.

Over the years, the club has compiled an impressive résumé of projects, including in the areas of vocational training, maternal and child health, literacy, and youth education. Another strong focus of the club, is water and sanitation. In 2010, when a devastating drought struck the country’s Turkana region, the club mobilized to send truckloads of food and supplies north from Nairobi. 

Since then, the club has stayed involved in that region, donating boats to fishermen on Lake Turkana and helping with crop development through a project called Furrows in the Desert, which uses irrigation methods developed in Israel to grow crops in arid regions. 

With the help of Rotary Foundation grants, the Rotarians have built a school and a health clinic and installed electricity. During the pandemic, they also helped several schools in and around Nairobi rebuild or improve their bathroom facilities with an eye toward improving hygiene.