Kenya

Mercy Corps has been working in Kenya since 2008, partnering with communities to drive peace and development. In 2025, Mercy Corps reached 3.7 million people across the country. 
 

The context

Kenya is one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Agriculture continues to drive Kenya’s economy. It directly accounts for 33% of the country’s economy, and another 27% comes from related industries such as transport, processing, and trade that depend on farming, according to the United Nations.

In recent years, technology is rapidly transforming the lives of Kenyans, and Kenya’s innovation ecosystem is setting the pace for the rest of the region. Kenya is considered a major tech hub on the African continent along with South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.

While Kenya has made important progress, deep disparities remain. Many Kenyans who live outside of the city centers are not often able to benefit from these opportunities, like young people who lack skills to engage in the labor market. Additionally, extreme climate events, including drought and flooding, have increased competition for eroding natural resources in communities where people rely on their land for their livelihoods.

Alongside economic disparities, long-standing political dynamics have also shaped social divisions. After decades of politics shaped by ethnic identity, Kenya’s social fabric remains divided along ethnic and tribal lines.

Our impact

Through partnerships with local governments and organizations, Mercy Corps supports communities as they build economically secure and more peaceful futures. Our programs make an impact across these areas:

Supporting sustainable practices to tackle climate challenges

Mercy Corps helps communities across Kenya build climate resilience by addressing urgent needs today while also preparing for future shocks. In Kenya's arid regions, where climate challenges affect land fertility, water supply, and economic stability, our team collaborated with pastoralists, farmers, and county governments to set up sustainable rangeland management through digital tools.

Participants use digital maps, developed with geographic information systems (GIS) software and in collaboration with the local people to identify resources—creating community resource maps. In Wayama Japta, communities used resource maps to locate and rehabilitate land for grazing. Community groups dug soil crescents to capture and retain water, planted grass seeds, built raised beds, and prepared deep holes for planting acacia and eucalyptus trees. As they mature, these trees and grasses will provide fodder and medicine for livestock, ensuring a more sustainable future for the land and community.

Mercy Corps collaborated with local groups to rehabilitate 500 acres of degraded rangelands and developed plans to guide communities on proper land use. Nearly 113,000 people received increased access to forage on land with improved soil quality. And with usage agreements in place, community members encountered less conflict between groups using the land. Through geographical analysis and climate services, like real-time weather warnings, restored land will help communities withstand long droughts.

Strengthening resilient livelihoods and economic opportunities

Mercy Corps’ AgriFin program partners with organizations to help smallholder farmers with products and services to grow sustainable farms for the long term. By performing extensive research with farmers, we understand their specific needs and find the best partners to help them increase productivity, income, and resilience. AgriFin collaborates with tech start-ups and financial institutions to provide services and support including inputs like seeds and fertilizer, access to markets, and financing.

In other programs, like Jobtech Alliance, Mercy Corps is helping young people find better work by supporting technology that connects job seekers with employers. The initiative strengthens the growing “jobtech” sector—digital platforms that help people find jobs, build skills, or grow their businesses. The Alliance supports entrepreneurs who are creating these tools so they can reach more people, especially youth and others who often struggle to access stable work.

Creating pathways to lasting food security

In areas such as South Kivu and Kasai provinces, we work with communities, local leaders, and governments to build longer-term food security and stability. Smallholder farmers are adopting more sustainable solutions to increase resilience to climate change and improve crop yields.

Mercy Corps is supporting farmers in northern Uganda, including women, youth, and refugee farming communities, by linking them to solar irrigation technology—a more sustainable solution for farmers with low incomes who were previously unable to grow crops during prolonged droughts. Many of the farming groups and their families eat the crops that they grow, and the rest is sold, with the income invested back into the farms. Our programs help to increase food security by improving livelihoods for farmers to purchase more groceries while also strengthening the availability of food for the wider community using a more sustainable approach.

Promoting peaceful solutions for all communities

Mercy Corps works alongside community leaders, families, and community-based organizations with trainings to promote conflict management and non-violence. Our program work focuses on supporting at-risk individuals, especially young people, to reject violence. We facilitate dialogue and solutions between community members and local government officials to address the underlying issues driving conflict, such as natural resource and rangeland management, cultural practices, or land ownership. Through these early warning systems, we are helping communities to identify and respond to tensions before they turn into conflict.

Highlights across our programs

Much of our work spans several focus areas at once, strengthening communities in more than one way. Some of our recent impact that achieved recently includes:

• Provided support to over 31,000 adolescent girls, boys, and young people across Kenya, by increasing their access to life skills, informal and formal education, and economic opportunities.
• Reached 598,0000 women, men, and adolescents and reduced acute malnutrition from 28% to 12% levels in Turkana and Samburu counties.
• Nearly 79,000 households—reaching over 394,000 people—gained access to low-emission cookstoves in Taita Taveta, Kwale, Mombasa, and Kilifi counties. The cookstoves reduce the time spent collecting firewood and cut exposure to harmful smoke and air pollution from wood fires.
• Delivered training in conflict management and cooperation, with a focus on inclusion to over 183,000 women and young people, in border communities between Kenya and Ethiopia through a cross-border mobility program.