BRIAN OMONDI

Brian Omondi is a young Kenyan marine scientist and environmentalist with a keen interest in conservational research. He is a Founder and Director at Natural Aquatic and Terrestrial Resource Organization (NATRO), a youth-led environmental organisation with a focus on marine conservation, management and research.

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Q: Tell us a few things about you! Your background, your childhood and early beginnings! 

I was born and raised in Rusinga Island in the Lake Victoria by a single mum parent as a first born child among 4 siblings. I would engage in fishing (handline method) with my 2nd born sibling to cater for meals at a time when mum was pursuing her degree at the university. My childhood has been completely moulded by my grandfather whom we were living with after grandmother passed away in 2010. Because of my love for water, I applied for a navigation course upon passing my secondary school national examination, however the university placement board chose me as one of the students to pursue marine resource management course. I then moved to Mombasa Island in the Indian Ocean in coastal Kenya for my undergraduate degree studies and has ever since been in coastal Kenya where I now actively participate in seascape conservation upon completing my studies in the year 2022.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently?

I live among the coastal Kenya Mijikenda community where poverty and illiteracy are still alive and well. The community is mainly fisherfolk and ocean emerging issues continues to implicate their income earnings making most young resort to criminal acts and drug abuse.

Q: Share with us some of the hurdles that you had to overcome in your life so far? How did you handle them? 

Among the Luo tribe which I belong to, separation among parents severely disadvantage the women, since a woman has just a choice of returning to her matrimonial home with her children. A life of child raised by a single mum is full of mockery and mental torture because people perceive the children as outcasts. This was the saddest stage of my life and motivation factor to attain academic excellence to get me out of my mother's matrimonial village.

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you? 

Mentors are confidants who not only guide you but share in your plights and inequities to make you a resilient and capable personality.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share? 

Being kind to people is the greatest gift you can accord a person. I have been in situations where complete strangers have solved my problems than close relations.

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives! 

Natural Aquatic and Terrestrial Resource Organization (NATRO)

Q: Share with us a motto you live by.  

Education is the equaliser.

Q: If you had all the money needed to launch the project of your dreams, can you describe what you would do? 

I would continue with the implementation of seascape conservation projects that I currently spearhead with NATRO.

Q: How is technology utilised for social impact in your country? For example are there mobile apps that support gender equality, inclusion, understanding of cultures?

Mobile apps are used to undertake baseline surveys.