An anonymous ICAP Kenya employee has accused the organization’s country leadership of favoritism, retaliation and poor handling of staff disputes. The allegations center on Country Director Dr Mark Hawken and senior manager Doris Naitore Odera, with the source claiming that internal decisions were driven by personal influence rather than merit.
ICAP, registered in Kenya as Centers for International Programs, is an American NGO headquartered at Columbia University in New York. The source said tensions inside the office had grown over promotions, staffing changes and who controlled key program decisions.
One of the earliest disputes described in the account dates back to 2015, when Dr Hawken allegedly declined to reinstate Dr Emily Koech as Director of Programs after she returned from a two-year MPH scholarship under Columbia University. The source said the decision followed pressure from Odera. Koech later joined the University of Maryland, where she reportedly secured additional grants.
The employee also claimed that Odera effectively ran much of the Kenya operation and accompanied Dr Hawken to high-level meetings and conferences, despite holding a diploma in Clinical Medicine from KMTC. The source contrasted that with the presence of other qualified doctors at the organization, including Dr Maureen Syowai, Dr Mbae, Dr Ouma and Dr Vakil.
In 2017, the source said, Odera clashed with Dr Caroline Ng’eno, then Regional Director for Nyanza, and Duncan Okado, the Training Coordinator for the ECHO Project. Ng’eno later resigned, while Okado’s contract was not renewed in October 2017, with the position allegedly handed to a relative of Odera’s husband.
The most detailed allegations concern Tom, the Director of Human Resources, whom staff viewed as a stabilizing figure inside the office. According to the source, the dispute began in July and August 2018 after Tom resisted efforts to hire Odera’s sister, Susan Mwenda, on a full-time basis and to end the contract of Alice, an administrative assistant in the front office. Alice was described as a long-serving employee with a postgraduate qualification in HR, while Mwenda was said to have a secretarial certificate from the 1990s.
The source said Tom wrote to Dr Hawken about the issue, but was told that if he did not want Alice removed, he himself would leave. At the end of August 2018, Tom allegedly received a termination notice citing reduced funding. A second notice followed in mid-September, this time framed as redundancy.
The employee claimed the notices left Tom depressed and led to his admission at Nairobi Hospital. While he was still on sick leave, the source said, Dr Hawken issued another redundancy letter that reduced the package by nearly half and referred to gratuity previously paid up to 2016. The account argued that gratuity and redundancy are separate under Kenyan law.
The source further said Tom had an employment arrangement tied to the Care and Treatment Program at JOOTRH through September 2021, with a three-month close-out period running to December 2021. The employee claimed Tom helped write the proposal for the five-year award that took effect in October 2016 and that his CV was sent to CDC, which played a role in securing the program. The third phase of the project began on 1 October 2018, according to the account.
Another allegation was that Tom’s KENPHIA budget was reassigned to Odera from 1 October 2018 after her NIMART project ended. The source said Odera had not previously worked on KENPHIA, which began in October 2016.
The employee said Tom went to court in September 2018 seeking an injunction under certificate of urgency, but the application was not granted. The source added that the notices expired on 30 September 2018.
According to the account, Tom also asked Dr Hawken to keep him in post because of his age, his children in university and another child in Class 8. The source said he also told Dr Hawken that he had loans and a long-term plan running through 2021, but that the appeal was ignored.
The employee alleged that interviews for two Deputy Community Mobilization Advisor positions were held secretly on 20 September 2018 at the National Council of Population and Development offices in Chancery Building while Tom was hospitalized. A separate interview on 18 October was described as a formality that resulted in Susan Mwenda being placed in the KENPHIA Administrator role.
The source said staff were distressed when Tom returned to the office on 1 October 2018 after two weeks of treatment for depression. Dr Hawken allegedly arrived with security officers, removed him from the office, changed the lock and kept his personal belongings inside. The employee said Tom later had to seek help through Prof Wafaa in New York to access those items.
The account traced Tom’s problems with Dr Hawken to April 2018, when he was coordinating a three-month KENPHIA training for 430 staff in Nakuru. The source said HR staff were expected to report to Nakuru at 10 a.m. on a Sunday to register a new team.
One example cited involved Emma Engoke, an HR employee who commutes from Machakos. The source said she was expected to leave home at 3 a.m. to board a company vehicle in Kilimani, and that Tom asked for a company cab because of safety concerns. Dr Hawken allegedly rejected the request by email and told her to find her own transport.
The employee also said Tom had raised concerns about staff safety after Dr Momanyi Ogeto was allegedly mugged at 2 a.m. earlier in the year. The source claimed Dr Hawken was displeased by the complaint and recalled Tom from Nakuru.
Further allegations in the account said Dr Hawken was spending time teaching and practicing medicine at Aga Khan University Hospital while still using ICAP vehicles or cabs. The source questioned whether immigration authorities and the NGO Board had approved that arrangement and claimed Odera had helped renew his work permit each year through a relative at the Immigration Department.
The employee ended by saying ICAP Kenya had many qualified local doctors who could serve in senior roles, including Dr Emily Koech and Dr Eliud Mwangi, who later became Country Director at Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation. The source called on the relevant authorities to investigate Dr Hawken at ICAP’s offices at CVS Plaza, 5th floor, at the junction of Lenana and Kasuku roads in Kilimani, Nairobi.
