11/12/2025
Last week, while driving through the dry stretches of eastern Kenya, I imagined a young person selling phone-charging services under a tree.
No shop. No grid power. Just a small solar panel, a power bank, and urgency meeting creativity.
It sounds simple—but it captures a truth we often ignore:
Youth empowerment in Kenya will not be delivered by jobs alone.
It will be built through entrepreneurship—especially climate-smart entrepreneurship.
With shrinking farmlands, prolonged dry seasons, and youth unemployment estimated at over 60%, the ladder our parents climbed no longer exists. Yet we still ask young people to “wait,” “apply,” and “be patient.”
What if we changed the question?
Instead of asking young people where they want to be employed,
what if we asked what problem they are already solving—and helped them scale it?
Across Kenya, youth are already doing the work:
• Turning waste into clean cooking fuels
• Using solar to power homes and micro-businesses
• Building recycling and water solutions where systems have failed
This isn’t charity.
It’s intergenerational justice—and one of our strongest climate tools.
I’ve shared a longer reflection on this (link in comments).
Curious to hear your thoughts: Are we preparing youth for the economy we have, or the one we wish we had?
