Youth Fund appoints new acting CEO

Morris Ondiek the head of the Enterprise Development Unit was on Friday appointed acting Chief Executive Officer replacing Immanuel Odero who has been acting in the same capacity since the suspension of Catherine Namuye over corruption allegations levelled against her in October 2015.

Mr. Ondiek holds an MSC. In Entrepreneurship from Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (JKUAT) and certificate in Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands. He is also a Micro, Small and Medium Enterpises certified mentor.

Mr. Ondiek has worked for the Youth Enterprise Development Fund in since 2011. He joined the Fund as an Enterprise Development Officer before being promoted to become the Regional Coordinator South Rift up to last year when he was appointment to head the Enterprise Development Unit.

Prior to joining the Fund, Mr. Ondiek worked as an SME lecturer at the Kenya Institute of Business Training, a unit within the Ministry of Trade.

Leadership at the Youth Fund has been the subject of discussion with the exit key persons in the recent past. It begun with the acrimonious exit of the chairman,  Gor Semelang’o whose appointment was revoked mid-term by the then Minister for Devolution and Planning, Anne Waiguru replacing him with Bruce Odhiambo. Gor vehemently protested his removal but as fate would have it, his die had been cast. Most recently his hopes to take reigns at Football Kenya Federation were dashed as Nick Mwendwa beat him to it.

In October 2015 CEO, Catherine Namuye was suspended in relatiin to 180 – 200m that had been trabsfrred from the Funds bank account. Interesting to note is that she was suspended barely four months after he was appointed to that position after acting in the CEO role for over a year. We are unable to establish the status of the corruption cases against Ms. Namuye.

Immanuel Odero served as acting CEO for less than four months.