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When I think about NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) in Kenya, I’m curious to know how and where it all started. Data from the Ministry of Culture and Social Services reveals that there are more than 200,000 NGOs and CBOs in Kenya since Kenya gained independence.
But do you know there was a time when there were less than 100 such organizations in Kenya? First things first, let’s define what NGOs are according to the government of Kenya.
“A private voluntary grouping of individuals or associations not operated for profit or for other commercial purposes but which have organized themselves nationally or internationally for the benefit of the public at large and for the promotion of social welfare, development, charity or research in areas including but not restricted to health, relief, agricultural, education, industry and supply of amenities and services.”
Jennifer Naomi Brass, a scholar and Doctorate student at the University of California, Berkley published a dissertation about NGOs in Africa. In her dissertation published for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, she uses Kenya as a case study and titles the document as follows: Surrogates for Government? NGOs and the State in Kenya.
Brass traces the origins of the operations of NGOs and CBOs to pre-independent times in the 1920s all the way to 1940s. The NGOs of the time were mainly led by churches and missionaries and some of their work stands out till today. There are many schools, hospitals and churches that still exist are more than 100 years old.
For example, you have the Church of the Torch which was started and is run by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) which was built between 1928 and 1933 by Dr. Arthur. The church stands next to a famous hospital known as the Kikuyu mission hospital.
Several schools have been born out of that missionary work such as the Alliance Boys and Girls’ high schools, Musa Gitau primary schools and the PCEA Kikuyu Hospital nursing school.
This all started in 1889 when the director of the Imperial British East Africa Company, Sir William Mackinnon was mandated to establish a British sphere of influence in East Africa together with Alexander Low Bruce.
To be continued here
