Jason Kap-Kirwok

Jason Kap-Kirwok, Kap in short, is the Senior Regional Director and Head of the EAC-TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) Partnership Programme based in Arusha, Tanzania. In this position, he is a member of the senior management team of TMEA. Prior to this appointment, Kap was the Kenya Country Director for TMEA. Kap joined TradeMark East Africa from SBP Consult – a consultancy he set up in 2004 and through which he consulted for airlines across Africa, among others. His last assignment before joining TMEA was a long-term contract with the World Bank to support the 19 countries of the Common Market for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA) to integrate regional and national strategic planning. Kap was also the Senior Director and Head of Corporate Strategy and Operational Change for Heifer International, a US-based development organisation with a historical footprint in 125 countries.

Kap has also worked for the Kenya Airways Group as the Group Director for Corporate Strategy and Industry Affairs, and the Chief of Strategic Planning and Research for the 20- member Common Market for East And Southern Africa, COMESA. He has served in boards of many organizations including in the strategy committee of the Nairobi Stock Exchange and the now defunct KenCargo Airlines. He has taught air transport management as a visiting lecturer for the City University of London, and financial management and creative writing at Daystar University as a part-time lecturer. Besides being an author (he has published five books), he is passionate about social justice and comments on economics and politics in his capacity as a newspaper columnist – currently for the Star Newspaper and previously as Sunday Standard columnist.

Jason Kap-Kirwok book, I Blame the Sky, won the 2013 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature, Children’s English Category. He has also published two poetry collections (Heartbeats of the Mind; and Loud Monologues, Silent Dialogues), a novella for young adults (The Heart is a Reluctant Nomad), and a collection of opinion articles (Telling it to the Birds). He has a forthcoming Novel – The Speed of Sin – scheduled for publishing in early 2016. He, with the help of friends, helped build the first modern school library for Chemoge Secondary School in Mt Elgon sub-County. For this and other contributions in the education sector, he was nominated by Bungoma County and honoured during 2014 National Heroes Day (Mashujaa Day) in October 2014. Kap-kirwok is a graduate of University of Nairobi (BSc), Eastern University (MBA), Wharton Business School (certificate in strategy) and University of Cape Town University (certificate in leadership).