Sophie Otiende

Sophie Otiende is a champion for victims of human trafficking, advocating for their rights and elevating human trafficking as a priority, in Kenya.  Her expertise, patience, and bravery have positioned her as a source of inspiration and confidant for other survivors of trafficking she meets and serves.

For the last ten years, she has worked with grassroots organizations in Kenya to provide services to trafficking victims and survivors, building Kenya’s victim assistance infrastructure and capacity.    

Otiende was responsible for setting up the structures and systems for the first shelter exclusively for victims of trafficking in Kenya and led the development of regional principles of practice for assisting victims of trafficking.  Otiende has been responsible for the development of curriculum to train women on entrepreneurship, and has coauthored manuals on victim services and child trafficking as well as a toolkit for raising awareness among local communities.  

She is currently a board member and survivor advisor at Awareness Against Human Trafficking (HAART), where until recently she worked as a Program Consultant.  While at HAART, she was responsible for assisting more than 400 victims of trafficking since 2014 and helped identify victims both within and outside of Kenya.  In her role as advisor, she continues to provide critical support and guidance to HAART’s victims’ assistance program.  She is currently the Africa Region Operations Manager for the NGO Liberty Shared and provides technical support to anti-trafficking organizations across Africa.