✦ Nairobi 2026
The gathering was a beginning. The inquiry continues.
On 12 October 2026, more than 140 people from six countries and across multiple sectors gathered in Nairobi for the founding of Borrowed Mirrors. Together, we opened a conversation about the frameworks through which we judge leadership, recognise knowledge, measure progress and determine who and what counts.
The gathering marked the public beginning of an inquiry that now needs to travel beyond Nairobi, into our institutions, communities, universities, boardrooms and everyday decisions. We invite those who joined us, and those encountering Borrowed Mirrors for the first time, to continue examining the assumptions that shape what we see and what we may be overlooking.
12 October 2026 · Radisson Blu Hotel, Nairobi Upper Hill · 140+ participants · 6 countries
Explore what began
Borrowed Mirrors began with a question about the authority we give to familiar frameworks and the consequences of allowing them to determine what counts as knowledge, capability, legitimacy and progress. Nairobi brought that question into a shared public conversation, creating an opportunity for people working across different institutions and sectors to examine its relevance to their own experiences.
The next phase requires more than recognising the problem. It calls for critical engagement with the argument, including evidence that challenges it, and opportunities to examine whether questioning inherited assumptions can lead to different and more defensible decisions. That is the work we now invite others to help shape.
✦ The Founding Conversation
The Founding Conversation brought together people whose work engages institutions, leadership, power, narrative and public life from different vantage points.
Moderator
Journalist and media leader.
Founding Conversation
Humanitarian leader and advocate for locally led development and reform of the international aid system.
Founding Conversation
Institutional leader and leadership scholar.
Founding Conversation
Author, journalist and commentator.
Author and Chief Steward, Borrowed Mirrors
Systems thinker, leadership strategist and institution builder.
Nairobi in the media
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Plays from YouTube. Watch on YouTube
Forthcoming publication · In preparation
What Nairobi Revealed will bring together the questions, tensions and possibilities emerging from the founding gathering, including ideas requiring further scrutiny. It will form part of the continuing intellectual record of Borrowed Mirrors.
The reflection will be published here and in The Reckoning once it is complete.
Read The ReckoningChoose how to participate
Nairobi brought people into the same room around a shared question. The opportunity now is to carry that inquiry into the places where we read, learn, lead and make decisions. There are different ways to take part, whether you want to engage with the ideas personally, convene others or test the argument within an institution.
01
Read Borrowed Mirrors on your own, then take it into a Reading Circle with friends, colleagues or an existing book club. Tell us about the group you have in mind and we will be in touch about next steps and reading resources as they become available.
02
The Reckoning is the ongoing publication of Borrowed Mirrors, where the argument develops through essays, cases, critique and competing perspectives. It is published on this website and shared on LinkedIn.
03
For organisations that want to apply the inquiry to their own decisions, assessment frameworks or understandings of progress. Share your context and the question you want to explore, and we will reply by email to discuss whether and how a conversation could be shaped. Involvement is subject to discussion and availability.
04
Researchers, practitioners and individuals can bring cases, evidence, questions and substantive challenges to the argument. Submissions are read by the Borrowed Mirrors team, who will respond by email where there is a basis to take the exchange further.
Organisations with a specific collaboration proposal can make a partnership enquiry. You can also buy the book on Amazon.
From the author
When I think about what Nairobi began, I am less interested in how many people will remember the gathering than in what questions they will carry into their own lives and institutions. Borrowed Mirrors asks us to examine the frameworks we trust, including the ones that have helped us succeed, and to consider whether they still allow us to recognise the realities and possibilities in front of us.
I hope the conversation will continue in places I may never enter: around dinner tables, in book clubs, university classrooms, boardrooms, communities and institutions willing to examine their own assumptions. The significance of this work will ultimately depend on what people discover, challenge and choose to do differently.
Dr Vongai Nyahunzvi
Author, Borrowed Mirrors
Borrowed Mirrors is an initiative of Equinexus Partners. About the initiative
