Restoring dignity by empowering citizens, strengthening local institutions, and walking alongside communities to shape their own future.
The standard of integrity, accountability, and equity that drives our programmes and partnerships.
To restore dignity by empowering citizens, strengthening local institutions, and delivering programmes rooted in justice, civic participation, protection, and sustainable community development.
A just, peaceful, and participatory society where civic systems, community development, and essential services serve everyone, especially the most excluded, leveraging local resources for sustainable impact.
The principles guiding every engagement, dialogue, and partnership we build.
We protect human worth and treat every person as capable of shaping their future.
We act with honesty, transparency, and responsibility in every partnership and decision.
We challenge exclusion and work for fair access to rights, services, and opportunities.
We build with communities, not for them, so local voices guide local solutions.
We work with grassroots groups, leaders, volunteers, and institutions to multiply impact.
We test practical ideas, use creativity, and adapt solutions to real community needs.
We design programmes that continue through local ownership, skills, and resources.
We create a safe, respectful space for women, youth, persons with disabilities, and all marginalized groups.
Leadership grounded in listening, community experience, and public accountability.
Born in Kibera and raised in Butula and Ugenya, Eliud Wataga saw how much people can do when they work together and how hard it is to move forward when opportunities, information, and support are limited.
Those experiences shaped his belief that community organizing begins with listening: understanding what matters to people, bringing them together around shared concerns, and supporting them to act on their priorities. He co-founded Dira Community Development Center based on that belief and serves as its Executive Director.
Dira’s workshops in Kibra express this work. For Eliud, gatherings like these matter because people need space to learn from one another, build trust, and find ways to take part in shaping their communities.
His interest in governance and public policy is grounded in everyday life. Public institutions' decisions affect access to services, livelihoods, safety, and opportunity. Eliud wants people to have the knowledge and confidence to make their priorities heard and engage with those responsible for decisions.
He sees peacebuilding as part of that effort. Through dialogue and community organizing, people can address tensions, build relationships across differences, and create space for voices often left out. He is committed to helping communities participate with dignity and safety and to supporting solutions shaped by the people they affect.
His vision is a Kenya where communities can organize with confidence, take part in decisions that shape their lives, and lead change rooted in their own priorities.
Dira is a Swahili word that means direction, guidance, and purpose.
Dira Community Development Center was co-founded from a simple but profound conviction: communities should not have to wait for tragedy before their voices are heard.
On 25 June 2024, Kenya experienced one of the most defining moments in its recent history. As thousands of young people took to the streets to call for accountability and better governance, the country witnessed extraordinary courage, but also heartbreaking loss. Families mourned loved ones. Communities were left searching for answers. Like millions of Kenyans, our founders watched with heavy hearts and asked themselves a difficult question: What if there was another way?
What if young people and communities had trusted spaces to engage, organize, and influence decisions peacefully before frustration reached a breaking point? What if citizens had greater access to civic education, stronger local institutions, and meaningful opportunities to shape the future of their communities? Those questions became the foundation of Dira.
Rather than allowing that moment to end in despair, our founders chose to transform it into hope. They envisioned an organisation that would bring people together, strengthen communities, promote peaceful civic participation, support vulnerable families, and equip young people with leadership skills. Over two years, that vision was shaped through deep community dialogues in Nairobi and across Kenya.
On 25 June 2026, exactly two years after the initial reflection, Dira Community Development Center was formally awarded a certificate to operate legally in Kenya as a Company Limited by Guarantee under certificate number CLG-QKTO2JY6.
Today, Dira exists because we believe every community deserves more than relief. It deserves opportunity. Every young person deserves more than a voice. They deserve to be heard. We walk alongside communities, local organizations, and development partners to build solutions together.