Library is ‘bridging cultures and building friendships’

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In October 2025, Kennington in Oxfordshire officially twinned with Musanda in western Kenya – the heart of Abingdon-based charity The Nasio Trust's community work.

In 2024, Oxford author Sylvia Vetta jointly lead a project with the charity to deliver Cosmic Cats – an anthology of stories by Kennington and Kenyan students, aiming to raise funds for the facility.

The author, who will cut its ribbon on 10 October, said the twinning committee chair, the Rev Sansom Kuponiyi, had come up with the twinning motto "bridging cultures, building friendships".

The trust writes that the connection between the two villages "is a story years in the making".

Vetta was the chair of the former Kennington Overseas Aid, which for 50 years raised money for development projects all over the world.

She said that when presented with a choice between three projects, people had voted for the Nasio one and built a production factory for the superfood spirulina in Musanda.

The charity founder, Nancy Mudenyo Hunt, who grew up in the Kenyan village, delivered the project and went onto to co-write a book with Vetta.

The Kennington community also continued the support and helped towards establishing the much-needed library, which will have WiFi access and a space for training sessions.

"Cosmic Cats is going to be the first book in the library because it's important that children know it belongs to them," Vetta said.

She said they hoped visitors to the Oxford Indie Book Fair on 22 November would pay for one book on a subject of their choice to go in the library.

Isaac Aldred, 19, from Kennington, spent a month in Musanda between February and March.

"From agriculture projects to jigger removal, spirulina making, and peer education, I saw firsthand the diverse range of Nasio's projects and wide-reaching impact," he said.

He said the "kindness and hospitality shown by everyone was inspiring".

"Despite the multitude of challenges facing the community, the resilience and determination people have is obvious."

He added he had seen the new project "that the people of Kennington have worked incredibly hard to fundraise for", as it had neared completion.

Vetta said "the most moving" example of the villages' friendship had happened on Remembrance Day, when at the war memorial the names of Kenyan soldiers from Musanda had been read out along with those from Kennington.

"This will be an evolving thing," she said, calling the children in Musanda "ambitious and all hard-working".

Hunt called the new resource "a tangible result" of their friendship.

"For 25 years, Nasio has believed in giving children access to education and opportunity.

"This library brings that belief to life and shows what can happen when two communities, thousands of miles apart, work together," she said.

The anniversary event will be celebrated at the Kennington Village Centre, via a video link with Musanda.