Abdikadir Aden Hassan is a young Kenya environmentalist and a peace Ambassador. At the age of 26 years he has made a significant contribution to the protection and sustainable management of the environment.

He is a young leader who has exhibited a big change for his society with a big passion for his community, committed and dedicated to every step he makes in giving back to his people as a youth volunteer.

Coming from an arid and semi-arid region that has over decades been adversely affected by change in climate and an area marred by insecurity which makes it very difficult to conserve the environment, Abdikadir has demonstrated courage and dedication.

He spends his time engaging the young people to protect the environment at the same time in creation of self-employment through identification of green jobs such as agro-forestry nurseries and through capacity building trainings.

For the 8 years he has been involved in environmental conservation, Abdikadir has risked his life several times to an extent of being killed just because of his environmental cause.

Antony embarked on a journey in search of life contentment and the journey led him to Korogocho slum in Nairobi in Compassionate Hands for Disabled children.

He was touched by the pathetic situation in which the disabled children were living in Korogocho slums and he immediately talked to a few friends and they started a page on Facebook called ‘Uplift A Kenyan Child Initiative’ through which they fundraised for the home and managed to raise enough funds to buy and develop a plot of land in Ruai which is safer and cleaner for the disabled children. Today, the home has a network of continued supporters many of whom were those mobilised by Antony's initiative.

In 2012, through his mobilization for support, two girls orphaned by HIV/AIDS were taken back to school. Antony continues to work for disabled, orphaned and HIV positive children through Dreams On Wheels International-an organization.

Antony Kiarie is 30 years old and works for International Peace Initiatives to earn a living and support his initiatives to support children.

Chief Kariuki uses social media in his administrative work and for crime prevention. Now commonly known as ‘The Tweeting Chief’, Kariuki has over 36,500 followers on Twitter, and his numbers continue to grow. Chief Francis Kariuki, who has been in charge of Lanet Umoja location in North Nakuru, has been using Twitter for nearly every part of his administrative work, from tracking down missing domestic animals to stopping crime in the area. His twitter account has become very popular in the area, that even local thieves follow him to know when to run away.

Chief Kariuki, who is 49 years old, also tweets regular motivational messages and one of tweets once stopped a depressed woman who was planning to commit suicide. On a different occasion, the tweeting Chief saved the lives of hundreds of children who had been attacked by bees in their school when he tweeted and told people to run to the school with blankets to save the school children and response was swift- unfortunately one child died but hundreds were saved.

David Kuria has for a long period of time been in involved in human rights activism. Mr Kuria's crusade for human rights started way back in 1992 when the country was fighting for multi party democracy. He at one time went on hunger strike at the Christ The King Cathedral, Nakuru for two weeks in a bid to put pressure on the Government to yield to their demands and later organized a freedom walk that took six days from Nakuru to Nairobi to present a memorandum to the then Attorney General Amos Wako over the grievances.

Mr Kuria, during the process, was unlawfully arrested and detained on several occasions for fighting for human rights violations and agitation for more democratic space. During his trial period in 1997, he lost his sister who was shot by police; his business was also demolished by the municipal council of Nakuru as part of intimidation to silence him.

He later established the Nakuru County Human Rights Network to deal with human rights violations rampant in Nakuru County and also intervenes in several cases of taking care of the street families who a time suffers neglect. He also organizes for burial of street children who have no shelter or place to bury them.

With selfless passion, David has demonstrated his strong commitment to realizing a green environment. He started up the initiative back in the year 2004, using his own funds to buy and plant tree seedlings as well as finance the related logistics. After years of individual effort, he mobilized group membership and organized the official launch of ‘Keep Nakuru County Green Initiative’ on November, 2013. To date, the group has planted about 3400 trees on various places in Nakuru.

Along with tree planting, David also leads the efforts to reuse waste material. He currently leads a waste recycling project that makes organic manure for use in organic gardening. He uses the project to demonstrate the recycling process, train and encourage people to adopt healthy, organic food consumption.

David has braved the difficulties along the way including financial challenges and limited support to pursue this noble endeavour.

Elizabeth Jerotich Kipsang has done a lot in a place where women are considered in little regard. When one of her neighbours was about to be killed by her violent husband, Elizabeth was the only person who had the courage to highly risk her life and go to that home and save the life of the wife. Today, that lady is alive because of the exceptional courage of Elizabeth.

Besides being a courageous woman, in a world where mentorship is lacking, Elizabeth has selflessly given her time and wisdom and proved herself as a worthy mentor to so many young people in her community. Being a humble Sunday school teacher since 1980 up to date, she has natured many young children who have grown up to become useful people in the society.

As if this is not enough, Elizabeth is a volunteer for orphaned and vulnerable children in her community. She works hard to fundraise for them so that they can grow happily and be productive people in the society.

Florence Kang’ai has a heart to give and support the needy regardless of where they come from. She is a mentor and a motivator to many young people who have lost hope and even those who are engaging in drugs and other immoral behaviours. She believes and understands the power of an educated society and she is always working hard to fundraise for needy students to attain higher education.

Florence, through mentorship and moral support, helps many young people to live a focused life and be determined to succeed. In so many ways, she is a lady that is committed to make the world a better place for all. She continues to sacrifice her time, energy and resources for the sake of the future.

Francis Warui is the OCPD for Kobujoi in Nandi South. He has been of great help to the people of Nandi South by improving the security of the place which has been very much wanting. He has helped manage and reduce significantly the cattle rustling that have caused a lot of suffering to the people of Nandi South . For Francis, his job is more than just a job- it is a calling and he does it from his heart.

He has helped so many families get back their stolen herds which is their source of livelihood.

His courage, dedication and commitment is exceptional. When you give Warui a distress call, regardless of the time, distance or weather, he personally responds immediately. More important, Warui never asks the distressed callers to fuel his car and he never says there is no means of transport neither does he ask for a bribe in order to help. Warui is such a role model for many of our police officers.

Geoffrey Kinuthia Chege is 22 years old and at that tender age, he is already a very passionate young ambassador of positive change. He has been working to give hope to the hopeless. After high school, due to his passion to help the less fortunate, Geoffrey started visiting children homes to help then with cleaning and playing around with the kids and he also would organize friends to volunteer and donate the little they have to give to the homes. Ever since, he has been organizing and encouraging his friends to skip at least a meal a day and buy lunch to the street families.

Geoffrey has identified himself with the street children. He goes and sits with then and give then hope and encouragement. Early this year, though a student himself, he took a street kid who was willing to go back to school to a school in Naivasha and he was enrolled in class five. Unfortunately the kid got into bad company and left school after four months.

In addition, he recently mobilized friends and together visited Meru Women prison where he donated 1000 Sanitary pads to the inmates.

Despite having been born with a physical disability, George Kamau Kiiru has indeed proved to many that disability is not inability. For a very long time he worked as a forest officer- having to climb up the trees to prune them- in spite of his physical challenge. While in the forestry, he developed passion for planting trees and conserving the environment. And in his small farm in Ndaragwa Constituency, he started educating local farmers on the importance of planting trees in their farms and stop depending and destroying the Government forests.

He trained the farmers on how to make tree nurseries and later how to plant the trees in their gardens in an Agroforestry way using his own piece of land as an example hence earning the name ‘Miti Mingi’. Not to mention that he even used to give his tree seedlings to his community members for free as an encouragement. Through his efforts, thousands of trees have been planted in his locality.

Miti Mingi has continued to inspire many to conserve the environment by planting the correct type of trees. He invites people to visit his small farm and learn how to grow food not just for their consumption but also enough to empower themselves economically.

In 1987, Grace Kibuku embarked on helping glue sniffing street children. She quitted her college studies to help these young people who were being subjected to commit crimes. This did not endear Grace to the thugs who were loosing their livelihood as a result of her efforts to rehabilitate the young people and she continuously faced death threats.

Since 1997, Grace has been supporting people, mostly children affected and infected with terminal illnesses like HIV/Aids and cancer. In 2000, Grace formed Agape group through which she has organized medical camps and food donations for the less fortunate in the society transforming the lives of over 500 children.

In addition, during the 2008 post election violence, Grace Kibuku coordinated the shelter boxes that housed women and children. She also went into the war zones and rescued over 150 orphans who were sorrounded by worriors threatening to rape young girls. Grace offered their hotel to accommodate women and children whose homes were burnt and this infuriated the perpetrators and their hotel worth millions was burnt down.

Janet has been actively giving her time and money to support the sick and the widowed by providing them with food, clothing, medicine as well as fundraising for students school fees.

Besides, she is committed to helping families become peaceful and have been offering her wisdom to assist in solving the conflicts among families. In addition, Janet has been on the fore front to ensure that alcohol and drug abuse has been dealt with in the villages in a bid to promote togetherness amongst the youth in the society and to reduce the rate of idleness which ends up in crime.

Janet is also a courageous human rights activist who has it in her heart to fight for people’s rights and justice. You will find Janet following up on rape cases, children who are being denied opportunity to go to school amongst others.

Joseph Kimaiyo Towett Initiated Ogiek Lands and livelihood program in 1988 and has kept the promise and the struggle to date. He led his community in filing and successfully prosecuting the first historic case leading to the historic landmark judgment of 17 March, 2014 and court decree on 7 May ,2014.

Joseph has kept the Mau forest debate for the last 24 years. Today the Ogiek are known all over the world. He transformed Ogiek village voices to National and International voices. For over twenty years Joseph have kept the Mau Forest Complex debate alive. Presently the Mau Forest complex is getting sufficient attention from major and minor stakeholders. By keeping the forest dwellers and dependants debate alive, there have been change of legislation and institutional reforms which impact the lives of many marginalized people positively.

Given the difficult and risky atmosphere and environment that he worked in for so long, it’s not been easy rebuilding his life. But most important the majority of the Ogieks who depend on the survival and protection of Mau ecosystem can enjoy the fruits.

For more than 10 years now, 82 year old Lilian Ndaro opened her very humble home in Subukia, Kenya for orphans, vulnerable and needy children. Many lives have been transformed through the hands of Lilian. Despite the fact that she is elderly, has health challenges and doesn’t have any source of income and depends on her family members and well wishers to support her, Lilian has never given up on brightening the lives of the young ones.

She takes the trouble to provide them with food, clothes, shelter, medical attention and education even though it is difficult for her. Lilian has given herself to these children selflessly and has supported over 50 children.

Linah Kiprop is a fighter and a mentor who has taken her battle, to help common and local citizens to achieve outstanding performance in their lives, even in some of the most difficult and forgotten areas to work in.

She has been mentoring and supporting many youths and women to fight poverty through small groups formation and helping them to get access to grants and loans to enable them implement economic empowerment projects. Through the groups, Linah promotes peaceful co-existence amongst people by making sure that all the groups comprise of the different ethnic communities.

Besides, she has been advocating for education and hence supported needy students through organising Harambee with the slogan “Elimisha Jamii”.

Mary Simat, out of her passion for her Maasai community, left her teaching career without any other pay job to champion for the rights of women and girls in her community. She selflessly embarked on helping to enlighten and empower women to stop harmful practices like FGM & early marriages and encouraged them be involved in development issues. Her fighting for the rights of women and girls earned her the title ‘dangerous woman’.

In a country full of corruption, greed and selfishness, Mary Simat has proved to be a woman of high integrity; she did one of the most unimaginable things in Kenya- she surrendered the title deed of a 10ha piece of land, that had been acquired illegally, back to the government- this cost her marriage and she has been separated with the husband in the back street of Narok where at times she struggles to pay her rent. But Mary believed in doing what is right and was ready to face the consequences.

Meitamei Olol Dapash has served his community, the Maasai people of East Africa, through the past 30 years. Basically, he has spent his entire adult life and promoting their human rights, education, and the environmental conservation of Maasailand.

In particular, Meitamei has been on the fore front in promoting the land rights of Maasai communities, the return of ancestral land taken under British colonization and not returned under independent Kenya. In 2010, he led 52 petitioners representing the Masaai community in filing a suit in Kenya Superior court to recover 30,000 acres of Mau Narok, land that was appropriated under British colonialism and continues to be occupied under independent Kenya. Meitamei Olol Dapash currently leads a broad based movement of Maasai people in this effort.

Meitamei has received death threats, been jailed many times, and lost colleagues to the struggle for Maasai human and civil rights.

Moses Oindo is a young man committed and dedicated towards building peace in our country Kenya. To begin with, Moses have been working with young offenders at the Borstal Shimo La Tewa prison, a correctional facility where he has been engaging the juvenile criminals into meaningful activities that are respectable and help in nation building through music. Worthy to mention is that under his guidance and mentorship, many of the young offenders were released.

In addition, in a country where ethnic divisions, religious divisions amongst other divisions that have caused so much pain, destruction and even loss of life, Moses has been organizing community walks for peace, environmental conservation, blood donations amongst others with the aim of uniting all Kenyans together regardless of race, ethnic backgrounds or political affiliations.

Noah is a member of county Assembly for Banja ward in Vihiga county and he is not just an ordinary MCA. He is committed to his work and improving the lives of people in his ward. He goes out of his way to make a difference in the lives of people by focusing on real issues affecting them.

Noah has worked hard to improve the quality of education and the performance in his ward. He has introduced feeding programmes for students coming from poor backgrounds, he has also been stretching himself to pay school fees for needy. To add on that, he has taken it upon himself to motivate teachers and pupils by paying for educational trips to schools performing well. The quality of education in his Ward has in result improved by 7%.

When it comes to security matters, Noah is not afraid to be on the fore front in fighting crime. When herds of cattle have been stolen from his community, Noah also puts his life at risk by joining his community members to go in search of the stolen herd and brings them back home to their owners. Noah has brought unity and attention to the Tiriki people of his ward.

Sacrificing his comfort and that of his family, Patrick Waluchio has supported over 18 young men and women from his own pocket to get education. Patrick goes back to his community, picks students who are bright and cannot afford to pay school fees and he personally takes them through secondary, college and University education. When they finish their education, Patrick uses his network of friends to get them jobs and as if that is not enough he actually rents accommodation for them before they are capable of financially supporting themselves. He is a model of love, selflessness and commitment.

Thomas Okusi is a talented musician. Despite the fact that he never had an opportunity to complete his studies due to lack of school fees, Tom Okusi have risen to be a great support for his community in Eldoret. He is committed to supporting other people produce quality gospel music and form quality church choirs.

Tom is a peace maker and he does it through his music, he has been uniting the people of Eldoret by training different churches and groups all for free. He also has formed an inter denominational worship team that has brought together over 100 people so far in Eldoret.

He knows the pain of not having an education and therefore, whenever he is able to raise some money from his music, Tom helps in paying school fees for needy children and orphans.

Wangu Kanja survived rape and a carjacking in 2002 and has since dedicated her life to promoting awareness and encouraging empowerment and healing for survivors of sexual violence. She now speaks about her experience openly and teaches others how to avoid risk situations.

Wangu has been working to create a society free of sexual violence and assisting victims to obtain psychosocial, medical and legal services. She has been a voice of victims ensuring that violence against women is at the forefront of the discussion within the Kenyan society and victims of Sexual and Gender Based Violence do not suffer silently from these horrific crimes. She has used her experience to provide assistance to other victims with.

Zablon Kuria is the founder and director of Rockbridge Ministries. Through this great endeavor, He has been able to establish Tumaini Mission centre in partnership with PCEA Nakuru West Shabab church. The mission centre houses over 450 children and young adults. Most of these are either orphaned or from needy parents. Zablon, through his great heart and dedication to society, hundreds of children can now access education, food and are certain of their future.