Kisioki Moitiko - International Collaborative

Kisioki Lengoije Moitiko, Project Manager-in-Chief, Director, ICSEE(T)

Kisioki’s story, by Robert V. Lange

It is easy to throw around the term “leadership”, but for me, Kisioki’s many accomplishments and ways of approaching challenges are exemplify true leadership. He helps others reach for a better life every day.

Kisioki and his father

Born in October, 1986 in the Maasai village of Selela, in Monduli District, Tanzania. In 2004, Kisioki graduated from secondary school in Mto wa Mbu, at the form 4 level. Kisioki’s family, his father with many wives and dozens of children, needed his financial input from early on, and Kisioki began earning an income with work in a safari lodge. He combined work with study and earned a certificate in Animal Health, from the Tengeru Animal Health College, and an advanced certificate in Wildlife Management from the Tropical Institute.

Fluent in English, Swahili, and the Maasai language, Kisioki first joined the Project as a translator for the International Collaborative for Science, Education, and the Environment (ICSEE). It was easy to recognize his leadership talents, and he was soon promoted to Project Manager. The organization continues to grow around his versatility, expanding from three to fourteen villages.

Taking the first step to solve logistics challenges

We find that new donors often come with regions where they have other projects going, and want to add our stoves for health, comfort, and conservation. We are happy to work with these programs and to take on the logistical and implementation challenges posed by each new region. Kisioki invents the first step in all outreach situations, bringing the creativity, flexibility, and commitment that makes the difference.

For example, to inspire “buy-in” for stoves and solar, Kisioki initiated the program of bringing women and men from each new area to Monduli to see the stove factory. He then takes them up to

Monduli Juu to visit the homes where proud and happy stoves users show them how much their homes and lives are improved.

Deep in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a potential Project region is under the control of the Conservation Authority, Kisioki invited the Authority to visit. Together with the region’s women, they toured the mature Project and heard the way it improves lives. With Kisioki’s insightful assessment and delicate approach, the Authority shared in the enthusiasm and expression of need of the women. Kisioki’s understanding got them fully on board. Permits are now on the way!

Kisioki Moitiko (second from left) with Stove Installation Team members and customers

Serving historic change in gender roles

“We didn’t know we could do work like this, building the chimney and installing the fire box. We thought only men could.”

-Paini Lorwasa, Installation Team, Eluwai, Tanzania

Committed to the success of women like Paini, in new roles, Kisioki provides oversight and support for the Project’s Installation Team training and logistics. In addition, he serves as a translator and advisor for the Monduli Women’s Pastoralist Organization (MPWO). The women’s group sets its own aims and is self-governed. They set up an initial livestock business to fund shared group initiatives.

Maasai livestock owners are very concerned about health and success of their animals. But Kisioki is unique in applying all that traditional “male” knowledge to the women’s business.

With dry season coming, it is a bad time to sell bulls because the price is low. Dedicated to the group’s success, Kisioki is sharing the collective male livestock knowledge accumulated by Maasai warriors over centuries, making sure the bulls thrive during the dry season onto a good market price in rainy season, in support of the MPWO.

As Project Manager, Kisioki leads the village men in embracing the stoves and supporting women in their new roles. He demonstrates stove benefits, and helps them realize their increased status when their wives are honored with election to the Maasai Women’s Installation Teams.�� Kisioki’s strategic and diplomatic leadership is helping to build a lasting change.

Overseeing and supporting the people of the Project

Managing a growing staff for excellent customer service

In addition to the Women’s Installation Teams in each Project area, we also have a highly competent, devoted staff of men stationed near the Project villages. Because we don’t just “sell and run” our commitment to good customer service requires excellent organization and oversight, with Kisioki at the helm.

Personnel management is never easy, especially when jobs are hard to find. Kisioki’s ability to recruit, train, and retain talented staff is a big part of our success.

What did this Maasai leader do during his first visit to America?

When Johnny Weiss, the founder of Solar Energy International (SEI), visited the Maasai Stoves & Solar Project, he was very impressed with our micro-grid accomplishments. He wished to help us with a deeper study of battery-based solar grids like those in our ten-

boma installation. Those were supported by our PEER grant from the National Academy of Science and USAID, Power Africa.

Maasai home, panel, and electrical distribution box at one of the boma pilot project sites

With supplemental PEER and ICSEE funds, Kisioki will focus his trip on those studies. He’ll be in Colorado in early October for SEI’s intensive five-day lab course on solar grids. The next week he will volunteer with Grid Alternatives, a Denver company that installs photo-voltaic systems in new construction.

Kisioki is excited about building on his knowledge gleaned from his SEI online coursework on solar grids that he took back home in Tanzania, and his on-the-ground experience in the initial bomas.

We then head to Washington DC to meet with the World Bank Cookstove Taskforce, followed by meetings with the USAID, and the National Academy of Sciences.

We’ll discuss our multi-sector approach to health, conservation, and empowerment,. We aim to explore scaling rural electrification. It is important to reduce the gap between the cost of what people need and what they can afford to pay.

We’ll return to Boston at the end of October where Kisioki will speak with MIT students and faculty about development and women’s organizing.