Our Story
Eco Clubs of Kenya is a Community Based Organisation (CBO) working to promote environmental protection and animal welfare. Eco Clubs of Kenya applies climate-smart solutions to reducing deforestation, improving pasture conditions, and increasing animals’ resilience to droughts in pastoral settings.
Eco Clubs of Kenya works with 15 primary schools, in Ibissil and Namanga division of Kajiado County.
These schools are in arid areas, are poorly equipped, and have dilapidated and inadequate infrastructure. We mentor primary and secondary school learners in environmental protection, animal welfare, and adolescent reproductive health.
How Eco Clubs of Kenya was born
Kenya experienced a severe drought in 2005, hitting the arid and semi arid lands (ASAL) particularly hard. The Maasai living in Kajiado County, were forced to travel long distances in search of pasture and water often coming into conflict with farmers and ranchers. Many cattle died in the ensuing conflicts.
One area that was badly affected was Bissil and Namanga Divisions in Kajiado County. The Maasai pastoralists with their large herds illegally invading private land in order to forcefully access grazing and water.
To mitigate the escalation of conflict, sensitive negotiations between the pastoralists and the ranch owners took place. After this experience, the ranches realised that they had to address the challenges caused by the cyclic droughts if they were to prevent future conflicts over grazing grounds.
In order to address this challenge, the ranches agreed on a long-term strategy to change the attitude of the Maasai community towards environmental conservation and range management in order to ensure sustainable land use particularly during the drought months.
The idea of equipping children through Eco Clubs was thus borne. The first, projects of Eco Clubs were in 2008, funded by the ranchers, private companies and international NGOs.
In the subsequent years of 2011, 2015, 2017, there were similar drought conditions as witnessed in 2005.
It became clear that climate change was increasing the frequency and intensity of droughts. New climate-smart creative and innovative solutions were needed to address this challenge.
In 2018, Eco Clubs of Kenya shifted its mission focus to creating a movement of young people to deal with climate change and its impact on their environment and Maasai cultural way of life. Innovation and technology based solutions are to be the heart of delivering this mission.