Country Profile

Kenya

programmes
over 2 years

participants

of youth reached through Kenya

ROAD SAFETY STATISTICS

Investing in Kenyan youth: a multi-partner programme.

Over a two year period, we worked with exceptional youth leaders from across Kenya to experience the YOURS Training of Facilitators. One of our early roll outs of the signature programme, youth in Kenya participated in the workshops to develop the capacities of young people within the road safety organization in which they operate.

We run the workshops in 2012 and 2013 with a strong partnership of local, national and international partners, funded by the Road Safety Fund. These workshops worked with local youth leaders to develop their knowledge of road safety risk factors in Kenya and the world as well as equipping them with skills, knowledge and resources to deliver workshops across the country.

Local partners saw a big increase in their young people’s passion for road safety as well as the skills they needed to take action. Overall, these trained young facilitators were able to make massive strides across the country for road safety; advocating for laws and running workshops with thousands of young people all across the country.

“I think these trainings are very timely”

“As I’ve seen that in Kenya, many decisions are made and policies put in place and young people are not included. I’m sure that with this kind of workshop, young people will stand out with the skills and knowledge they’ll need to make a difference in road safety in the country”

Bright Oywaya

Executive Director – ASIRT Kenya

Workshop Delivery in Kenya

Discover our work with Kenyan youth leaders.

A strong national partnership of stakeholders

Before initiating our two week workshops, we spent time to develop a strong partnership of stakeholders who helped us develop our programme to meet the needs of Kenyan youth. Together with local organizations a partnership was formed to prepare, execute and ensure the follow-up of the Programme. The partnership existed of: The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Share the Road, Kenya Red Cross,  ASIRT-Kenya, PAMOJA Road Safety Initative, USALAMA Watch Initiative and YOURS – Youth for Road Safety. The Programme was funded with the support of the Road Safety Fund, Michelin and TomTom.

Local partners on the group invested in the programme by selecting their best young leaders for the workshop as well as support them to deliver their workshops across the country once the training was completed.

The overall objectives of the programme

    1. Increase young people´s understanding of the road safety crisis in Kenya and the risks they face on the roads (e.g.: speeding, helmets, distracted driving).
    2. Promote and increase the involvement of young people in road safety efforts in Kenya.
    3. Build the knowledge and develop the skills of 10-15 youth leaders in order for them to implement their own road safety activities

    Our two week Training of Facilitators programme was implemented twice over two years, between 2012 and 2013 with both groups forming an extended pool of skilled youth facilitators. We worked with the young Kenyan leaders both in person at a distance to help them deliver their workshops across the country.

    Road safety education reinvented

    It's no secret that young people experience life differently to their parents and the older generations, so then why do so many workshops assume that young people want to sit through an old school style of learning? We've experienced it ourselves, sitting through hours of presentations, speech after speech and talk after talk. If we really want to engage with young people, we know this is not the way! Therefore YOURS is using a highly interactive and enagaging methodology while delivering workshops.

    In Kenya, we focused on the following topics:

    1. Facilitation Skills
    2. Peer Education
    3. Fundamentals of Human Learning
    4. Scope of the Road Safety Problem
    5. Youth and Road Traffic Injuries
    6. How Crashes Happen
    7. Key Risk Factors in Road Safety: Speeding, Non-use of Helmets and Distracted Driving
    8. Communication and Public Speaking Skills
    9. Team and Trust Building
    10. Developing a Youth and Road Safety Workshop
    11. Evaluation methods

    “I’ve been inspired, I’ve been motivated”

    “Your style of workshops is very very nice. I can say that it’s very interactive and fun. Africa needs more of these workshops.”

    Sally-Anne Gakunga

    Workshop participant in Kenya

    Results and Impact

    In Kenya, our two workshops run in 2012 and 2013 have continued to create ripples of road safety action amongst youth. The 26 young leaders trained as facilitators for road safety workshops scoped the issues facing young people in Kenya and took action. In Kenya, the rise of motorcycle taxis, known as ‘Boda Bodas’ are serviced by a massive population of young males, many of whom don’t wear helmets or encourage their passengers to do so either. One target group of our young facilitators were this demographic with hundreds of Boda Boda riders given trainings in the importance of helmet use, the encouragement of safe road use and increase in uptake of proper helmet usage.

    Our local partners have continued to support the youth of Kenya to facilitate a number of workshops across the country. In particular, Kenya Red Cross and ASIRT Kenya helped facilitate workshops with at their staff branches with hundreds of young people being reached through workshops, campaigns and advocacy messages championed by our facilitators.

    From creative resource to innovating workhop delivery, young Kenyans have continued to make an impact for road safety across the country. Several of our trainers have worked nationally to improve road safety infrastructure with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which is based in Kenya and has been leading an open diaglogue for Kenyan road safety NGOs to take road safety action. To this day, our facilitators are connecting with groups of young people in Kenya to educate and raise awareness of road safety.