At the heart of the Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen (OKM) Foundation is a firm belief that education and skills are powerful tools for unlocking opportunity, reducing inequality, and building lasting peace. Pillar I focuses on equipping young people in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) and the Kerio Valley with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to shape their futures and uplift their communities.
Access to quality education remains a significant challenge in remote regions. The OKM Foundation bridges this gap by providing scholarships and educational support to learners at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. We supply study materials, cover tuition fees for promising students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and collaborate with local schools to improve infrastructure, libraries, and learning resources. In areas where traditional schooling is difficult, we deploy mobile learning platforms to bring education directly to the doorstep of underserved learners.
We are committed to practical, career-ready education. Our vocational and technical training programs focus on high-demand sectors like agriculture, information technology, renewable energy, construction, and entrepreneurship. We partner with training institutions and local industries to deliver hands-on learning, internships, and apprenticeships, ensuring young people graduate with the skills employers need—or the skills to start their own ventures.
Empowering youth to become job creators, not just job seekers, is central to our mission. The OKM Foundation offers entrepreneurship training, business mentorship, and access to seed funding to help youth turn ideas into viable enterprises. Through youth entrepreneurship hubs, we foster innovation, provide access to markets, and create networks that support growth. Our approach helps reduce dependency on traditional, often conflict-driven resources by promoting sustainable self-employment.
Economic empowerment must be grounded in sound financial understanding. That’s why we integrate financial literacy training into all our programs. We equip young people with the knowledge to budget, save, invest, and manage their finances responsibly—laying the foundation for long-term stability and resilience in a region where economic uncertainty is often the norm.
We empower youth and marginalized communities through education, skills development, leadership, peacebuilding and sustainable livelihoods.
