Stephen Ogweno is a trained global health practitioner who is also the founder and CEO of two health tech startups namely Stowelink Inc based in Kenya and Lifesten Health based in Rwanda.
Ogweno Stephen has served as a national representative for Kenya in various global health conferences including representing Kenya at the 5th Commonwealth Nurses And Midwives Conference and making a presentation at the Royal College Of Physicians In London in 2020, and presenting at the World Heart Summit in Geneva in 2022.
Ogweno Stephen has also served as an advocate for non-communicable diseases at the local and global levels including working with the World Health Organization NCD Labs and with the global NCD Alliance just to mention a few.
Background and education
Ogweno Stephen hails from the lake side region of Kenya and was born on the 28-2-1996. According to his LinkedIn profile, Ogweno Stephen attended primary school at Xaverian primary school in Kisumu where he later sat for her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2010. He latter attended Emmanuel’s Computer College in Kisumu in 2011 before joining Kanyawanga High School latter in the year where he attended and sat for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in 2014.
He joined Kenyatta University in 2015 to pursue a Bachelors Degree in Population Health but in 2017 he won the African Sustainability Innovation Challenge which saw him win a scholarship to study at Cambridge University Institute of Sustainability leadership in South Africa where he graduated with post graduate certificate in Sustainability Leadership in the same year. Ogweno resumed his studies at Kenyatta university and graduated with a second class upper Bachelors degree in Population Health in 2019.
Ogweno Stephen has also received short scholarships to study specialized courses in the Harvard University where he studied Entrepreneurship In Emerging Communities and Strengthening Community Health Workers programs in 2019.
In 2020, Ogweno, was among the recipients of the Commonwealth Scholarships to study a master’s degree In Public Health with a specialization in Global Health at the University Of Manchester where he will be graduating in 2023.
Career
Ogweno founded his first health company Stowelink Inc in 2015 shortly after joining the campus and officially began operating in 2016 with his first big project being Project Alpha a project that focused on cancer education and screening.
As part of his studies at the university Ogweno Stephen was attached to the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and referral Hospital in 2017.
Ogweno was appointed in 2019 to join the National NCDs Intersectoral Coordinating Committee. In the same year he worked with Population Health Kenya where he was the national lead for the Kitu Ni Kukachora Programme that focused on educating young people on health issues.
In the year 2020 through his organization Stowelink Inc, Ogweno released his new and improved mobile application for NCDs education the NCD 365 App and quickly got partners from 8 countries in Africa using the platform to educate about non communicable diseases (NCDs)
In 2021, Ogweno Stephen was appointed by the World Health Organization to join the Steering Committee for the NCD Labs initiative where he advises on leading innovations for NCDs and the next generation. In this year he also co-founded Lifesten Health , a health startup in Rwanda that rewards people for being healthy.
In 2022, Ogweno received yet another appointment to join the global NCD Alliance as a board member for the programme Our Views Our Voices. Where he advisers on global strategic action on non-communicable diseases.
Through out his career, Ogweno Stephen has not only worked extensively in the health sector, he has published multiple scientific research projects and even was a recipient of the World Health Organizations Hideyo Noguchi Scholarship Prize For Young African Researchers in 2020.Ogwenos health career has focused on young people, on-communicable diseases and using innovation to improve health outcomes.
Impact
Ogweno Stephen has had tremendous impacts in the fields of health, entrepreneurship, and leadership. In health through his organization Stowelink, he has done projects in 10 countries reaching over 5 million people just between 2020 and 2021 with health literacy and diagnostics programs. He is also a pioneer in the health tech space for non-communicable diseases with products like the NCD365 app and the Lifesten App. In entrepreneurship, Ogweno Stephen has founded and co-founded other successful business ventures including Legacy Leadership Africa, an entrepreneurship and leadership training consultancy, Info4food social enterprise and the NCD Champions group just to mention a few. In leadership, Ogweno is a multi-award winning author of 6 books with his latest title being Practical Skills For Entrepreneurial Success. He also mentors and trains young people on various leadership topics through his podcast the Afro Prenuer Podcast, online course series on entrepreneurship and through his leadership consultancy, legacy leadership Africa.
Ogweno describes himself as an optimist, an entrepreneur, and a visionary and through his life’s contribution we can see why.
