Umra Omar is an award-winning social entrepreneur, community leader, and the founder of Safari Doctors, a mobile medical clinic serving underprivileged communities in Kenya.
Omar and the Safari Doctors travel by boat, road and air to bring medical care to people living along a remote area of islands, the Lamu Archipelago, near the Kenyan-Somali border.
She spoke to CNN International’s African Voices Changemakers programme about how the organisation has grown from humble beginnings: “When we first started it was mainly about getting immunisations out to rural areas and making sure that a woman who wanted access to family planning could get it. So just providing that primary care of your cough syrups, your pain medication, and then advancing from going to about a hundred people a month to now up to like 2,500 people every month.”
Newsmakers of the year
Immaculate Kassait
The election specialist last month become Kenya’s first-ever data commissioner. While some celebrated her rise in a predominantly patriarchal society, others were quick to question her suitability for the sensitive role given her history as an official of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), which has in the past been criticised for questionable data management in the disputed 2017 General Election.
Parliament was even served with a memorandum by the International Commission of Jurists questioning her suitability, but the MPs rejected it because the lobby failed to demonstrate her culpability.
“I am willing and ready to work to ensure that regulations are in place to ensure that data protection in Kenya becomes a reality. Kenya is placed second in Africa after Ghana as a trailblazer in ensuring personal data is protected,” Ms Kassait was quoted saying when she appeared before the Communication and Innovation c