President Alfred's Inaugural Speech

PDG Ken Mugisha, DGE Wairimu Njage, District officials present, regional coordinators, IPPS and PPS, my classmates, fellow Rotarians, Rotaractors, friends of Rotary, ladies, and gentlemen:

I am super excited to take up the presidency of this great club, RC eClub Safari Kenya. My journey with Rotary began in 2017 when I moved to the Kenyan coast. During a stakeholders' forum where I was discussing a randomized controlled trial I was managing in Kilifi, Rotarian Jennifer Grim approached me. She said, "You sounded like a Rotarian… you are a Rotarian to the core and I would like to invite you to one of our meetings." I said yes, but at the back of my mind, I wondered if she meant I should join a lottery game or something of the sort.

A week later, I attended a fellowship and a swallowship with RC Kilifi. At that time, I had just changed jobs and sectors from WASH to SRHR but still missed my seven years of passion and dedication to the WASH sector. After a few meetings and field visits, I decided to join Rotary. Rotary allowed me to continue working in WASH and even incorporated MHM into the WASH projects, all of which were global grants. Jennifer mentored me, and by the time I was leaving RC Kilifi, I felt I had made a positive impact in the communities we worked in.

At the end of 2018, I moved back to Nairobi in time for the birth of our daughter. As is common with new parents, we didn’t want to leave the baby with the nanny even for an hour, and I thought of taking a sabbatical from Rotary. Then in 2021, I was introduced to eClub Safari Kenya. I am sharing this journey because my presidency aims to increase our membership by 50%. It is doable if all of us introduce our friends and colleagues to Rotary. We all know what makes a Rotarian and can spot them even in a crowd.

I am also committed to doubling our contribution to the Rotary Foundation! I know these are tough economic times, but I also know our members contribute significantly to our projects. We will seek to collaborate with the private sector and other stakeholders so that members can direct their contributions to the Rotary Foundation.

The increased membership will allow us to create and operationalize two more caucuses. We already have Watamu, Nairobi, and Kisumu. I am dreaming of a Diaspora Caucus and one in Nyeri and potentially one in the Rift Valley. Each caucus will continue doing projects as we create more projects via the new caucuses.

All this is only possible if we engage and keep our members connected to the communities we serve. My board will continue working on context-specific engagement strategies. I am confident that this growth, scaling, and deepening of our impact is possible because IPP Catherine oversaw the development of SOPs and guidelines that will allow us to take off!

Needless to say, we will also comply with the new guidelines as we conclude our registration as a society and see through the timely and successful completion of our current global grant.

All this is possible with collaboration and dedication. This is what we all stand for at eClub Safari. I could go on and on, but because of time, I want to invite all of you to our fellowships on the cloud. There, too, exists the magic of Rotary!

Thank you.

Given on Saturday, 13th July 2024 at Nakuru