Returning to Kenya with Purpose
Between college and graduate school, Peace Corps volunteer Ken Kobe taught at a small secondary school about as far west as you can go in Kenya in a tiny fishing village called Port Victoria . Ken made a follow up visit to Kenya five or six years after he left the Peace Corps, but his love for Kenya was destined to remain long-distanced. Finally, 35 years later, he returned as a chaperone for his son David’s high school social justice trip to Kenya in 2011.
Ken Kobe visits the school in Port Victoria where he taught as a Peace Corps volunteer.
“That was really the first time I'd seen AMPATH. I knew a little bit about the program and the IU Center for Global Health from my days in Indiana state government. But, as you know, AMPATH really ramped up after PEPFAR and began to have significant impact in Kenya,” he recalled.
“While at IU House, I got to talk with Purdue engineering students and teachers working on water filtration systems, an anthropologist studying family structure, people from DowAgroSciences (now Corteva) working on agricultural innovation--all of this (seemingly) tangential to the healthcare mission.” IU House is the group of houses where AMPATH consortium leaders and guests often live while in Eldoret.
Ken had lunch with Joe Mamlin, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and learned that AMPATH had a clinic in Port Victoria. While there wasn’t time to visit on that trip, eventually he’d return.
Now both of Ken’s kids, David and Ellen, have been to IU House in Eldoret at different times. He hopes one day to bring his wife Lisa too.
Looking back to the time of Ken’s first trip to Kenya, Port Victoria had no electricity, no telephones, no running water and the country was just five years out from independence. “Having a chance to teach kids in that environment and to recognize how eager they were for education was great – especially comparing that to the United States where we kind of take education experience for granted,” Ken recalled. There were a couple of Catholic European priests in the village that Ken stayed in touch with after he left, but eventually he lost contact with almost everybody from his time in Port Victoria.
However, one former student who contacted Ken unexpectedly in the 90s stands out.
As a secondary student, Calestous Juma was not much younger than Ken. After earning a scholarship to go to university in the UK, Calestous became a scientist and an academic who worked in Kenya with the UN Development Programme, became head of UN's Biodiversity program and a professor at the Kennedy School at Harvard. He had a distinguished career, recognized around the world as one of the foremost experts in the field of technology and sustainable development. Unfortunately, Calestous died just a few years ago at the age of 65. President Kenyatta attended his funeral. He was buried in Port Victoria and Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, attended his graveside services.
“Calestous was kind enough to say to me when we reconnected many years later, that his experience with me gave him a sense of his possibilities in the world. It was the old Peace Corps notion of changing the world one life at a time. That's the kind of impact that AMPATH is having. You have programs that are saving hundreds of thousands of lives. And that's a marvelous thing. But people in the AMPATH program are also connecting with individual people whose lives are changed by human interactions,” Ken continued.
When asked about what shapes his generosity and influenced his life, Ken speaks about his family and how he was raised. “I was fortunate to have had a family who believed in giving to others. That probably shaped my view more than anything else did. My parents were religious and always generous to their church - more generous than their budget allowed. I have greater resources and I’m not sure as generous as I ought to be by comparison. They are the models that influenced me.”
“I think when you get to a certain age you begin to understand that you're likely to be remembered more for what you share than what you accomplished. Sharing can be little things - it doesn't have to be monumental. I've been fortunate to have that model with my parents and my family and I believe that you've got to give back the kind of blessings you've received,” he reflected.
As Ken was exploring ways to volunteer, he was surprised to find many Indianapolis connections to programs in East Africa. Ken became involved with the School of Hope Foundation, which supports St. Aloysius Gonzaga High School in Nairobi, founded by a priest who graduated from Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in 1966 and Building Tomorrow, a nonprofit that builds primary schools and runs education programs in Uganda.
Ken has committed his financial and management expertise to help with the accounting and finance team at the IU Center for Global Health for several years, serves on the IIGH board and is a donor. “I really do appreciate the kind of comprehensive approach that AMPATH takes - the whole person kind of notion that Joe Mamlin preaches – the emphasis on food security and clinical work, research, and all of the elements of the program. An exciting part of AMPATH is a willingness to try new ideas, be creative, and seek out funding opportunities for what is important and not simply chasing funding.”
Ken grew up in Ohio, went to Denison University, joined the Peace Corps and attended graduate school at Ohio State. He spent the first half of his career in Indiana state government, including as state budget director and leading the Department of Commerce. The second half of his career was at Barnes & Thornburg until retiring in 2014. He resides in Indianapolis.