Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge are among four Kenyans who have been ranked among top 50 African disruptors.
The report published by the Africa Report indicates the four Kenyans are among politicians, athletes, investigative journalists, techies and business barons changing the rules of the game – some for better and others for worse on the continent.
Other Kenyans include Peter Njonjo and Edwin Macharia.
Njonjo is ranked at position 25 for his technology that has contributed to success in food supply in the country. He is the CEO of Twiga Foods, one of Kenya’s most successful start-ups, created in 2014 as a solution to inefficiency in Africa’s large, but highly fragmented, informal fruit and vegetable market.
His company uses a technology-enabled B2B platform to source products from 17,000 farmers across 20 Kenyan counties and deliver them directly to 2,500 vendors per day in Nairobi and its environs.
According to the report, the company is now expanding into fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and targets continental expansion by the third quarter of 2020, starting with French-speaking West Africa, and then Nigeria. “The company has been credited with raising farmers’ yields while stabilising consumer prices, and is building a new distribution centre that will have state-of-the-art cold rooms, conveyors and sorting equipment, enabling Twiga Foods to offer supply-chain services for both agricultural and FMCG products,” the report reads.
Njonjo is followed by sports guru Eliud Kipchoge for his famous tag of ‘Breaking limits’.
Kipchoge broke the marathon world record in Berlin in 2018, completing it in 2:01:39 – 1 minute and 18 seconds, faster than the previous record.
He won the 2019 London Marathon in a time of 2:02:37, so he now holds the records for the fastest and second-fastest marathon speeds of all time.“But neither of those are his fastest recorded time. Having won 12 out of the 13 marathons he has entered, he became the first person in recorded history to finish a marathon in under two hours in October 2019,” the report read in part.
According to the report, Kipchoge’s time did not count as a new world record under IAAF rules owing to the set-up of the challenge, but it earned him two Guinness World Records including the Fastest marathon distance (male)’ and ‘First marathon distance under two hours’.
Haji is the third Kenyan ranked at position 37 for his tireless efforts to fight crime in the country.
The report indicates Haji is delivering on his promise to tackle graft. “The Director of Public Prosecutions orchestrated the July 2019 arrest of the country’s finance minister, Henry Rotich, on suspicion of financial misconduct, which Rotich denies; 27 other government officials were also charged,” the report said.
Rotich was the first sitting Cabinet member to be charged with financial misconduct in the country’s history. Days later, Haji ordered the arrest of a governor for abuse of office, conflict of interest and dealing with suspect property.
Another governor was arrested in December for misappropriating public funds. “Dozens of current and former public officials have been charged and more than 300 prosecutors have had their appointments revoked,” the report notes.
Trained as a lawyer, Haji worked for 18 years in the Kenyan Intelligence Service before joining the public service in January 2000 as state council in the Attorney General’s office.
Edwin Macharia, a consultant, is the last Kenyan at position 47.
The report indicates the global consulting firm Dalberg Advisors has hired Macharia as its global managing partners – the first time a Kenyan has taken the role.
Rather than sit in headquarters in New York, Macharia has tilted the whole company towards the continent, doing much of his work from Nairobi.
A former McKinsey employee who also worked at the Clinton Foundation, Macharia is responsible for innovating across the whole group, according to founder Henrik Skovby.
He also set up the Kenya office in 2008 and tried his luck in politics by vying for an elective position as a Member of Parliament.