Profile
Vincent Ochieng Ombaka
- Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
- Founder, Wazo Africa
- Chair, KIWANA — Kileleshwa Ward Neighbourhood Association
- Member of Parliament aspirant, Dagoretti North
Ask Vincent what drives him and he won't reach for the word "transformation." He thinks it gets used so often it has stopped meaning anything. What he actually cares about is enterprise: giving people who already have a product, a business, a skill, room to get it to market without somebody standing in the way.
A permit officer slowing down a small builder. A tax regime that lets a business grow quietly for five years and then hits it with penalties nobody warned it about. A traffic stop that turns into a shakedown. For Vincent, these are the real obstacles to change in Kenya, and clearing them out is the work he has built his career around.
He has spent more than a decade turning that belief into practice, moving between legal drafting, policy advisory, business strategy, and now public office.
Laws he has actually written
Much of Vincent's work has gone into building the legal frameworks that let pastoralist economies function. He has drafted or contributed to:
- Wajir Water Management Bill, 2023Gazetted
- Wajir Rangeland Management Bill, 2023Gazetted
- Wajir Livestock Marketing Bill, 2023Gazetted
- Samburu County Nomotio Livestock Improvement Center ActEnacted
- Rangeland management bills for Garissa, Isiolo, Laikipia and SamburuDraft
- Livestock marketing bill for GarissaDraft
He facilitated public participation on the Animal Welfare Bill, the Animal Health Bill and the Veterinary Public Health Bill. His legal research led to a Directorate of Veterinary Services circular that opened the door for private sector involvement in vaccination campaigns across Northern Kenya.
Public interest work
- Successfully petitioned the Kenyan Senate over government action disrupting local trade in the sugar sector. The petition is formally recorded on the Parliament of Kenya website.
- Presented a Law Society of Kenya memorandum on the Affordable Housing Bill to the Joint Committee of the National Assembly's Finance and National Planning and Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works Committees, at Parliament Buildings in January 2024.
- Contributed legal research and data mining to the minimum tax case, Kenya Revenue Authority v Waweru & 3 others, decided at the Court of Appeal in December 2022.
Advisory and development roles
- Policy Advisor, USAID Feed the Future Livestock Market Systems Activity, implemented by ACDI/VOCA (2022–2023).
- Council member, National Youth Service (2019–2022).
- Independent consultant to the International Livestock Research Institute, reviewing Kenya's animal health laws to expand private sector participation in ASAL areas.
- Consultant to the Research Foundation for SUNY, developing county government policy and legislation under the USAID-funded AHADI programme.
- Contributor to the World Bank sponsored Tackling Regional Inequality and Inclusion in Northern Kenya (TRIINK) consultancy.
- Facilitated the establishment of the Frontier Counties Development Council Water Sector Forum.
His policy and legal research also fed into the ILRI publication Delivery of animal health services in the ASALs in Kenya (Kiara, Ombaka, et al., 2018).
Business and enterprise
Vincent founded Wazo Africa, a governance and development policy consultancy, in 2013.
He has spent close to a decade as Head of Strategy at Oyake Enterprises Limited, known as The City Wholesaler, where he led the rollout of Tally ERP, Odoo ERP and Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, including a mobile app and bank integration.
He currently chairs KIWANA, the Kileleshwa Ward Neighbourhood Association.
Faith, in practice
Faith runs through all of it, though not in the way people usually mean when they say that. Vincent is drawn to biblical figures who solved real, practical problems: David steadying a nation as a military leader, Joseph managing a food crisis, Daniel running an administration well.
Less about Sunday, more about whether the work holds up to scrutiny on Monday.
The kitchen and the shamba
Vincent is a father and a husband who genuinely loves cooking. He bakes, makes his own pizza, and describes the kitchen as the closest thing he has to an industrial site.
He has also become something of a hobby farmer. This year, he and his family have not bought a single vegetable from the market. Between pumpkin leaves, kunde, and eggs from chickens he keeps in the village — on feed he formulates himself — growing food has become both a hobby and, in his own words, something with real enterprise potential.
Education
- 2018LLMUniversity of London International Programmes
- 2019Postgraduate Diploma in Laws, Economic RegulationUniversity of London
- 2019Postgraduate Certificate in Laws, Tax LawUniversity of London
- 2015Diploma, Advocates Training ProgrammeKenya School of Law
- 2015Certificate in Company Secretarial PracticeKASNEB, Institute of Certified Secretaries
- 2012LLBUniversity of Nairobi
Twenty-one bills, and a reason for each one.
The record above is the argument. The agenda is what I intend to do with it in the National Assembly.