Learning From Their Experiences: An Exploration of Why and How Kenyan Youth Engage in Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience.

Abstract

The perspectives, expertise, and experiences of young people from the Global South are often overlooked or excluded in mainstream climate change scholarship, activism, and decision-making, despite their efforts to address the damage caused by the climate crisis in their communities. Guided by the principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and the photovoice methodology, this study explored how climate change affects Kenyan communities, the reasons why young people become involved in climate activism, and the strategies and innovative tactics they employ in their efforts. I employed the social-cognitive model of political activism for climate change as the primary conceptual framework, drawing also on Ubuntu and the concept of climate justice to enhance it. From February 2024 to June 2025, eight youth participants, aged 18 to 35, developed research questions, collected data on various climate activism projects they led or collaborated on, and conducted inductive thematic data analysis. The analysis identified four themes. The first theme examined how Kenyan communities have experienced the climate change crisis. The second explored what motivated youth climate activists to engage in climate activism. The third focused on the activism strategies or tactics used to promote climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. Themes four to six investigated aspects of collaboration, community partnerships, empowerment, and relationship building. This study found that although climate change literacy is not yet integrated into the Kenyan education system, the eight activists used peaceful, community-focused, and project-based activism strategies that reflect non-formal and informal education. Another key finding was that these activists addressed the disproportionate effects of climate change both individually and collectively while also facing local and global power dynamics. This dissertation contributes to the existing literature on sustainability and climate change by emphasizing the importance of using youth-focused approaches, such as YPAR, and environmentally friendly methods, like photovoice. It also introduces an integrated conceptual framework for studying youth climate change activism that draws on perspectives from both the Global North and the Global South. Finally, the study indicates that creating orchards and botanical gardens in schools can serve two purposes: providing nutrition for K–12 students and communities, and laying the foundation for integrating climate change education into primary and secondary curricula.