Registered CBO in Nairobi
KESA is formally registered as a Community-Based Organisation, accountable to its members, its board and the community it serves.
Who we are
Football as a route out.
Kibera Elite Soka Academy (KESA) is a community-based organisation that uses football to engage, inspire and unite children growing up in one of Africa's largest informal settlements. We meet young people where they are — on a dusty field at the edge of the slum — and walk with them toward something bigger.
1,200+
Children reached since inception
2015
Year KESA was founded
4–23
Age range we develop
7
Community programmes
Kibera is home to hundreds of thousands of people and is widely recognised as one of the largest slums on the African continent. For a child born here, opportunity is scarce and the pull of the streets is constant.
KESA exists to change that story. Since our founding we have built a safe, disciplined space where talent is spotted early, character is shaped, and every child is reminded that where they come from does not decide where they can go.
What began as ten boys training after school has grown into a full grassroots academy running seven community programmes — coaching, mentorship, girls’ football, girls’ mentorship, mental health, crime prevention and community engagement — reaching families across Kibera and the wider Kibra ward.
We are not only building footballers. We are building confident, healthy young people who believe in themselves and give back to the community that raised them.
A safe place to grow.
Training is only the beginning. Sessions are structured, supervised and led by certified coaches, so parents know exactly where their children are every evening after school — and children know they belong somewhere.
Certified coaches
Every session is led by qualified, certified coaches.
Coach development
We support ongoing coach training to raise the standard of the game.
Run properly, by people who know.
Kibera Elite Soka Academy is a registered Community-Based Organisation in Nairobi. Our board and staff include professional volunteers who give their expertise to the academy, and every child who trains with us is looked after by qualified people.
Professional volunteers on the board and staff
Our board and staff bring professional experience from outside sport — governance, administration and community work — given voluntarily to keep the academy well run.
Qualified coaches
Every session is led by certified coaches, and we invest in ongoing coach education to keep raising the standard of the game.
Physiotherapists & first-aid responders
Trained physiotherapists support player welfare and recovery, and first-aid responders are on hand so injuries are treated properly and quickly.
Protecting the children, women and girls in our care is part of that structure, not an afterthought. Our child, gender & safeguarding policy is public, and anyone can use it to hold us to account.
Better together.
We do not work alone. Partnerships give our players better coaching, better facilities and a wider world than the one they train in.
Partner organisation
Elevate Sports
A working partnership that strengthens our coaching, our structure and the opportunities we can put in front of our players.
Programme venue & partner school
German School Nairobi
We run a KESA programme at the German School Nairobi, giving our coaches a professional environment to work in and our children access to proper facilities.
Calvin Owiti
In 2015, Calvin Owiti set out to give the children of Kibera what football gave him — belonging, discipline and hope.
A coach at Nairobi's French School Elite Soccer Academy, he saw talent everywhere in Kibera but nowhere for it to grow. With no field, he converted a small patch of ground by the side of the slum and began training ten children aged four to eight — raw talent, but no gear, no pitch and no pathway.
They came back every evening after school, and that became KESA — led today by a team of certified coaches who share his conviction: every child in Kibera deserves the chance to reach the professional level.
Coach · French School Elite Soccer Academy, Nairobi
“We started with ten kids and a field by the side of the slum. What we were really building was belief.”
Be part of the next chapter
Ten children became an academy. With the right partners, an academy becomes a pathway.