You Need the Right People in Kenya. How Do You Find Them From Abroad?

Suppose you are sitting in London and looking for a Kenyan organisation working with women entrepreneurs.

Or you are in Atlanta trying to find the right person to speak to about healthcare.

Perhaps your company wants to understand a sector in Kenya. You need a property lawyer. A university contact. An accountant. A supplier. A nonprofit partner. A developer. A school. Someone within a professional association.

You can search Google.

You can search LinkedIn.

Within an hour, you may have twenty names.

And you can still be no closer to the person you actually need.

A contact and a connection are different things

A contact is information.

A name. An email address. A phone number. A LinkedIn profile.

A useful connection has context around it.

Why this person?

What do they actually do?

Are they relevant to what you are trying to accomplish?

Are you approaching the right level within the organisation?

Do they have an interest in the kind of conversation you want to have?

And just as importantly, why should they want to speak with you?

That last question is sometimes missed when people are approaching Kenya from abroad.

A good introduction considers both sides.

Start with what you are actually trying to accomplish

“Can you connect me with some businesspeople in Kenya?” is difficult to act on well.

What kind of business?

Why do you want to meet them?

Are you looking for customers, partners, suppliers, investors, information or simply an introduction to the sector?

The more clearly you can answer those questions, the better the connection can be.

The same applies to organisations.

If an international nonprofit says it wants to “meet women’s organisations in Kenya,” there may be hundreds of possibilities.

But perhaps it is specifically interested in organisations working in women’s health, leadership development or economic empowerment. Perhaps it wants national organisations rather than community-level groups. Perhaps it is looking for potential programme partners. Perhaps the immediate goal is simply to listen and understand.

Those distinctions completely change who should be in the conversation.

The person with the biggest title isn’t always the right person

It can be tempting to start at the top.

CEO. Executive Director. Country Director. Chairperson.

Sometimes that is exactly the person you need.

Sometimes it isn’t.

A programme manager may understand the issue you want to discuss in far greater detail. A business development lead may be the person actually responsible for partnerships. A technical specialist may be able to answer questions that a senior executive cannot.

Good local connection-building involves understanding organisations well enough to identify the person relevant to the conversation, rather than simply chasing the most impressive title.

Context before the introduction makes a difference

Cold introductions can work.

Warm, properly contextualised ones often work better.

Imagine receiving an email that says:

“Please meet Jane. She is visiting Kenya and would like to connect.”

You still know almost nothing.

Now imagine knowing why Jane is coming, what she is working on, why someone thought the two of you should speak and what she hopes to discuss.

You can decide whether the meeting is relevant before accepting it. You can also arrive better prepared.

That small amount of context respects everyone’s time.

This becomes even more important when international visitors have only a few days in Nairobi and are trying to fit several conversations into one trip.

Sometimes the right connection needs a room

One-to-one introductions are not always the best format.

There are situations where several people have enough common ground that bringing them together creates a better conversation.

That might be a small breakfast between an international organisation and Kenyan leaders working in a particular field. It could be a roundtable with professionals from a sector. It might be a site visit followed by a conversation with the people running the organisation.

The point isn’t the breakfast.

It isn’t the venue, name tags or programme.

The room exists to create the connection.

Who is invited, why they are there, what each side understands beforehand and what happens after the meeting matter far more.

Nairobi runs on formal systems and human relationships

Kenya has sophisticated companies, institutions, professional bodies, government agencies, universities, nonprofits and business networks. Many are easy to find online.

But professional relationships still matter.

A thoughtful introduction can help someone understand why an enquiry deserves attention. A local person may know that the organisation you found isn’t quite the right fit and point you towards another one. Someone familiar with a sector may know which questions you should ask before requesting a meeting at all.

That doesn’t mean every connection needs an intermediary.

Often, it doesn’t.

But when the purpose is specific, the time available is limited or the right fit matters, local context can save a great deal of unproductive outreach.

Follow-up is part of the connection

This is where many promising meetings quietly disappear.

Everyone leaves enthusiastic.

“We should definitely do something together.”

“We’ll stay in touch.”

“Send me that information.”

Then flights happen. Normal work resumes. A week becomes a month.

For an international organisation or individual, having someone still in Kenya can make the difference between an interesting meeting and an actual next step.

Who was supposed to send the proposal?

Was an introduction promised?

Does another meeting need to happen?

Is somebody waiting for documents?

Does a local organisation need information from the international party?

Connection-building does not end when people exchange business cards or phone numbers.

Often, that is where the useful work starts.

Finding the right people begins with knowing why you need them

Before searching for contacts in Kenya, get specific about what you are trying to achieve.

Then look for relevance before prestige, context before volume and quality before the number of introductions.

You may need one person.

You may need five.

You may need several people around one table.

You may simply need somebody locally who can work out where the conversation should begin.