25,000 Youth Inducted Into Climate Worx Programme

The government has inducted 25,000 new youth workers into the Climate Worx Programme.

The move marks a significant milestone in the scaling-up of Kenya’s urban climate response strategy, which is centred around green jobs, environmental renewal, and community resilience.

The Climate Worx Program is a flagship sustainability and youth empowerment initiative implemented under the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with county governments, the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC), NYS, civil society organisations, and other partners.

The Program addresses pressing environmental challenges such as river pollution, solid waste build-up, and degraded public spaces as well as creating meaningful livelihoods for thousands of young Kenyans.

“This isn’t just about cleaning up our environment, it’s about tackling the problem at the source”, said Rtd. Brigadier Joseph Muracia CEO of Nairobi Rivers Commission, “It’s about restoring dignity to informal workers, revitalizing neglected urban spaces, and building a greener, more inclusive future led by our youth.”

The inductees will be deployed across a network of active and upcoming Climate Worx sites, mainly in high density informal settlements, urban riparian corridors, and flood-prone zones.

The workforce includes a mix of youth, women, NYS graduates, and community-based groups who were selected through a structured recruitment drive over the past few months.

Previous Climate Worx initiatives have been actively involved in transforming key sites such as Kibra, Dandora, Lucky Summer, and others, where tangible progress has been made in riverbank decontamination, drainage works, sanitation improvement, and public space regeneration.

One of the programs focus areas is the 27-kilometre Nairobi River corridor across each riverbank, which is currently undergoing phased rehabilitation under a Special Planning Area (SPA) framework gazetted in March 2025.

The Climate Worx Program is structured to deliver benefits across multiple dimensions;

• Environmental: Restoration of urban ecosystems, improved waste management, cleaner water bodies.
• Economic: Paid work opportunities for underserved youth, skills transfer, and potential enterprise development.
• Social: Community inclusion, improved public health, and reimagined safe spaces for recreation and culture.

In the coming weeks, the new workforce will begin work at newly identified sites, with further mobilization planned through partnerships with community-based organizations, housing and urban development teams, and sectoral agencies.

Dignitaries at the event reiterated that the initiative is designed for long-term sustainability, with continued investments in training, tools, infrastructure, and inter-agency coordination to ensure that gains made are not only maintained but multiplied.