A short version of a long story.

I grew up in Mathare, one of Nairobi's largest informal settlements. Where I'm from, decisions about the neighbourhood — where roads go, how floods are handled, what happens to young people — were almost always made by someone else, somewhere else. The work I do today comes from wanting to change that.

Youth and Urbanism (Y&U) is the organisation I founded to do it. We help young people in informal settlements take a real part in planning their own neighbourhoods — turning what they live through every day into research, community action, and policy that actually reaches the people in charge.

Over the past decade I've moved from student leader to programme officer to founder. I've designed and managed projects with partners such as Plan International, Hivos, UNICEF, UNESCO, and the Embassy of Portugal, and raised and managed more than KES 16.7 million for youth-led climate, urban-safety, and community work.

I also design and build the digital tools that keep the organisation running — the websites, systems, and software behind Y&U — because a small team that builds its own tools can do the work of a much larger one.

Away from the programmes, I speak about youth power and the future of African cities, and work with funders and city partners to get young people into the rooms where decisions are made.