Omondi Kasidhi
DigiFarm – Kenya
Omondi Kasidhi is currently Director of DigiFarm Kenya Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Safaricom PLC, with a mission to create wealth for smallholder farmers. He is accountable for strategy and execution for DigiFarm’s agenda, as well as engagement with stakeholders internally and externally to communicate and deliver against the Company’s mission.
Prior to this role, Omondi was the Head of Sustainable Agriculture Sourcing for DIAGEO PLC in Africa. In this role, he managed strategy and execution of local sourcing initiatives for Diageo across 8 African markets (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa).
During his time, Diageo grew local sourcing to 80% of their agricultural raw materials locally from 80,000 farmers – nearly doubling the volumes of locally sourced material within 5 years. During his time in Diageo, Omondi also set up Diageo’s local sourcing program in Ethiopia, working with 6,000 smallholder farmers to source over 8 tons of barley within 3 years.
Prior to joining DIAGEO PLC, Omondi worked with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), a unit set up by the Ethiopian Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to accelerate Agriculture Transformation in Ethiopia.
At ATA, Omondi led the set-up of the Maize, Wheat & Barley teams, working closely with Federal and Regional Agencies, Donors, Farmer Groups and Private Sector players to unlock core challenges within these sectors.
Omondi’s experience spans over 15 years within Africa, working across Non-Profits such as the William J Clinton Foundation, business consulting with Dalberg Development Advisors, and within the Public Sector. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Grinnell College, Iowa, specializing in Economics and Computer Science. He is a Thomas J Watson Fellow, and in his spare time likes to run or code.