Project Director

Boniface Mwangi is an award-winning photojournalist. He started his career at The Standard, the second largest newspaper in Kenya, as a photographer and did various assignments of increasing responsibility in a number of countries including Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, China, Somalia, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, France.  He also covered the historic election of President Barack Obama in the USA.

After witnessing and documenting the post-election violence, he boldly took his photography to the streets in towns across Kenya, bringing the story of the violence directly to the grassroots in communities across the country, coverage that mainstream media had failed to provide.  This initiative was Picha Mtaani.

He has worked as a freelancer for Bloomberg, the AFP, Reuters, the Boston Globe, and a number of other media outlets. He has been recognized as a TED Fellow, Acumen Fellow, and twice as the CNN Multichoice Africa Photojournalist of the Year-2008/2010, among many other awards.  He holds a Diploma in Print Journalism from the East African School of Journalism.  With photography experience from the local “hood” to within high level global networks, Mwangi is trained in the coverage of human rights through photojournalism at New York University, as the Africa Fellow with the Magnum Foundation.

Pawa 254 Community Manager

David Mutua brings a diverse background in computer science, photography, social media, and many other areas to his role as Community Manager.

Previously, he worked at Africa 24 Media where he designed the photography website, photography.a24media.com.  He was appointed Head of Photography after his skill and passion for photography was noticed.  After working at the organization for two years, he left to pursue freelance photography with a focus on humanitarian work. Since then, he has worked with a number of NGOs, including: Catholic Relief Service, UNICEF-ESARO, Concern Worldwide, International Organization for Migration and Kenya Pharma| USAID on different assignments across Kenya. David has three years’ experience in online content management, especially in use of social media.

holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya, with a specialty in Applied Computer Science. He also has extensive knowledge in Desk Top Publishing (DTP) and holds a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) Certification.

Advisor

Sasha Kinney advises Picha Mtaani and Pawa 254 on social movement-building and social enterprise management.

Sasha is a grassroots political organizer and freelance consultant.  Her recent projects include helping to coordinate community design initiatives with Architecture for Humanity Boston, planning a political organizer conference called RootsCamp (a project of the New Organizing Institute), and early field organizing for the Obama for America 2008 campaign.  In her work, Sasha draws upon her experience in organizing grassroots political advocacy campaigns in the USA over the past decade on issues including antiwar/peace, genocide, civil liberties, environment, and most recently Occupy Wall Street with Avaaz.

Also, for two years, Sasha worked for Devex, an innovative Washington, DC-based social enterprise, where her clients were over 300 major international development organizations and other actors.  Devex seeks to bring business efficiency to the international development sector.