Akijul means change. We are the practice behind the word.
Akijul comes from akijulakin, the Ateso word for change. It is a research, strategy and change practice rooted in more than twenty years of real work across Africa.
Change is not a service we sell. It is a practice we live, and a discipline we help organisations build for themselves.
Akijul Consulting generates the learning, strategy and capacity that makes lasting change possible. We work with organisations, networks and social enterprises across the continent, facilitating rather than prescribing, so that strategy is tested in the room, on the ground, with the people it is meant to serve.
The work spans research, strategy, change and facilitation, but it holds together as one arc: practice generates learning, and learning carries implications for policy and systems. We are not interested in insight for its own sake. We are interested in the kind that changes how things are done.
Akijul Consulting is led by Ash Okille and supported by a growing practice of professionals, partners and collaborators who bring together expertise in research, strategy, organisational development, communications, technology and operations. We believe the strongest work is built through collaboration — bringing together the right people for each assignment while remaining grounded in practice.
Ashanut (Ash) Okille
Researcher · Strategist · Enterprise Builder · Creative Practitioner · Facilitator
Ash has spent more than twenty years working across fourteen African countries with UN agencies, bilateral donors, NGOs and social enterprises. Her work brings creative intelligence into strategy and organisational change, treating enterprise as a living practice rather than a fixed plan.
She founded Akijul to hold the whole arc of that work, from the working session to the systemic implication, in one coherent body of practice.
The core practice team
Akijul is not a personal consultancy but a practice that convenes capability. It is led by Ashanut (Ash) Okille — founder and lead strategist — working alongside a small core team: Martha across executive coordination and operations, Velma across finance and administration, Amwene across research, communications and partnerships, Shemei across creative content and visibility, with Fibercraft as technology partner.
Martha
Day-to-day coordination of Akijul and KaraSpace; keeps projects, logistics and operations moving.
Velma
Financial management, reporting and the administrative systems that support the practice.
Amwene
Research and knowledge management, visibility, communications and partnership coordination.
Shemei
Storytelling, content development and digital visibility across Akijul’s platforms.
Fibercraft
Digital systems, website development and technology infrastructure — an organisation, not an individual.
The associate network
Every engagement is different. Depending on the assignment, Akijul brings together experienced associates from across East Africa and beyond — including researchers, facilitators, organisational development practitioners, governance specialists, policy experts, designers and technologists. This flexible network enables us to assemble the right combination of expertise for each client’s context while remaining lean, responsive and grounded in practice.
How we work
Facilitate, don’t prescribe
We arrive with better questions, not finished answers. The strategy people co-author is the strategy people carry.
Grounded in practice
Strategy is tested in the room and on the ground, with the people it is meant to serve, before it is ever written down.
Learning that travels
What works in one organisation becomes a reliable lesson, and a reliable lesson becomes an argument that can move a system.
A practice today, Akijul is building toward a continental practice-based capability institute, with its home in East Africa.
Akijul in practice.
Two practice-based inquiries are already under way in 2026, alongside a live partnership and a recent engagement that shows the practice at work.
Business & human rights across Uganda
Akijul was engaged as part of a team by the Enable project to conduct business and human rights assessments of enterprises across Uganda, spanning multiple sectors and regions — direct, current evidence of how our rights and governance grounding applies to enterprise practice.
Banking on the Creative Sector
A job-preparation and training programme delivered with the Bayimba Foundation and KaraSpace, building a job-readiness and placement system for Uganda’s creative talent over a 12-month pilot.
Two inquiries under way in 2026
Women navigating transition in an age of disruption, beginning with 15–20 women in Kampala; and a survey of AI adoption in Uganda’s creative economy, with 15–20 creatives.
Akijul is part of a wider ecosystem, connecting strategy, applied practice and research into one coherent body of work.
KaraSpace Uganda
Our applied laboratory, where strategy is tested in practice.
karaspaceug.com →In Her Element
Akijul’s flagship inquiry, how women build capabilities, confidence and community to navigate transition.
akijul.com/in-her-element →Ashanut (Ash) Okille
The practitioner behind everything, thinking, wider work and enterprise practice.
AshOkille.com →What's true today
A working advisory practice earning revenue (Akijul), and a living laboratory earning revenue (KaraSpace); two live practice inquiries and an active creative-sector partnership; a founder and small core team working with named partners; frameworks and tools already in use with clients; KaraSpace as a physical base and prototype.
What we're building
A continental practice-based capability institute, with its home in East Africa; two to four inquiries a year, growing into comparative and continental studies; a lean core, a fellowship network, and a capability-based board by end of 2026; a licensed library of frameworks, toolkits and AI workflows; a permanent Practice Lab and Learning Campus, later this decade.
Let's build change that lasts.
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ConsultingResearch. Strategy. Change. Grounded in Practice.
akijul.com