Writers Guild Kenya Former Editor wins Continental Essay Competition
Victor Ndede, is the winner of the 2018 African Leadership Essay Competition organized by Uongozi Institute. Victor, a finalist student of Law at Moi University, was bequeathed the award in Kigali, Rwanda on 4th August, 2018. The Award was presented by H.E JoaquimChisssano, Former President of Mozambique during a gala dinner hosted by H.E Benjamin Mkapa in the presence of other prominent Africa leaders; H.E Moncef Marzouki(Tunisia), H.E OlusegunObasanjo(Nigeria), H.E Hassan Sheikh Mohamud(Somalia), and H.E Armando Guebuza(Mozambique). The competition was open to all African citizens between the age of 18 – 25 years old. Entrants were asked to answer the question in their essays:
“If you were an African Leader how would you finance development and transformation?”
The Competition received 36 African countries were received and vigorously evaluated. As in previous years, it was anticipated that five finalists would be selected. However, after rigorously evaluating each of the essays, only three essays were selected. The essays were evaluated based on:
- Originality, creativity, critical thinking (10 points)
- Structure, organization/logical flow (3 points)
- Content addressing the essay question (7 points)
Uongozi Institute, a Tanzanian government organization which exists to support African leaders to attain sustainable development for their countries and Africa.
Prior to this, Victor has won other writing awards. In 2013, he won Gold Award in the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition and was in 2015 appointed junior judge of the same Essay Competition and in 2017 he was elevated to Senior Judge of the Essay Competition. In 2015, he was among the 6 winning essays from Kenya selected by the East African Community to serve as an EAC Youth Ambassador. Further in the same year together with a colleague submitted the Best Overall Action Paper during the 4th Amnesty International Intervarsity Human Rights Debate.
He actively participates in the writing space where he currently writes as a Commonwealth Correspondent for Kenya. He has also written papers for presentation at various domestic and international forums.
Victor Ndede, served as the Editor for Writers Guild Kenya between the period of September 2016 to December 2017. Within this time, he introduced a number of avenues to help grow writers, and is remembered for streamlining the Editorial Department which now leads the self-publishing unit of Writers Guild Kenya. Victor continues to be an inspiration to many writers, through this award, he joins a number of our writers who keep influencing and shaping the journey to writing in Africa. He is currently in the process of developing a platform for developing other writers in Kenya in the field of factual writing.
