By Magdalene Wanja - Reporter
Kenya, 26 August 2026 - The story of Kenya’s technology revolution is usually told from Nairobi and other advanced cities.
The idea of start-ups, innovation hubs, artificial intelligence and young entrepreneurs building businesses from increasingly connected urban centres.
But in Enduata, Kajiado County, there is another version of that story.
Children in an off-grid community are learning to code at a solar-powered digital resource centre. Traditional building techniques are being used alongside new approaches to water harvesting, food production and environmental conservation.
For Martin Irungu, co-founder and executive director of EmpServe Kenya, the experiment is not about parachuting technology into a community and declaring the job done. It is about starting with the community itself.
“To EmpServe, social innovation means co-creating local, practical answers to everyday systemic problems,” Irungu says. “That looks like using solar energy, natural cob-building techniques for houses, and smart rainwater harvesting instead of waiting for expensive outside fixes,” he says.
This sits at the heart of the Social Innovation Eco-Village (SIEVE), an initiative by EmpServe that seeks to bring digital inclusion, entrepreneurship, environmental conservation, indigenous knowledge and community resilience into one ecosystem.
A Different Definition of Innovation
Founded in 2016, EmpServe set out to bridge the gap between young people in underserved communities and the skills, technology and opportunities needed to create sustainable livelihoods. Over time, its work expanded across youth empowerment, digital inclusion and entrepreneurship, reaching communities in 10 counties.
But the experience also revealed a limitation: tackling challenges one programme at a time often left gaps. Skills without jobs created frustration. Technology without electricity remained inaccessible. Agricultural interventions without water faltered. And conservation efforts that did not improve livelihoods struggled to last.
SIEVE is an attempt to connect those pieces into a living ecosystem. One of the clearest examples is the solar-powered Digital Resource Centre. Children in Enduata are learning digital skills and coding through Code Clubs, an opportunity unimaginable without reliable power.
The centre is part of EmpServe’s wider DigiLabs programme, which operates 24 hubs in last-mile community centres, with particular attention to young women. The hubs provide ICT training, career-readiness support, mentorship and seed funding.
The goal is to move beyond basic computer literacy. Young people are trained in IT, coding and online entrepreneurship, with the expectation that those skills can lead to remote work, digital businesses or opportunities to become trainers themselves.
But Irungu insists digital skills only become transformative when connected to opportunity.
“The biggest question is not simply whether a young person has acquired a skill. It is whether that skill can translate into a livelihood,” he says.
That is why EmpServe’s programmes are organised around four pillars: Equip (skills development), Ignite (supporting entrepreneurs), Bridge (connecting youth to markets and employers), and Thrive (focusing on resilience).
The organisation says more than 10,000 young people have been reached through 30 projects with 50 partners, and over 3,000 have transitioned into jobs or enterprises.
Beyond Training
The question of what happens after training is particularly important in rural communities. A certificate does not automatically create a job.
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EmpServe’s Code Club programme trained 230 educators across Murang’a, Kiambu and Kajiado, resulting in 117 school-based clubs and 22 community clubs within a year. The strategy is designed to leave knowledge behind in the community rather than making every programme dependent on external trainers.
It is the same principle being applied to SIEVE: the objective is not simply to build a facility, but to create a model that communities can adapt and sustain themselves.
One of the most distinctive feature of the eco-village is that its idea of innovation does not begin and end with technology.
Natural cob-building techniques are being explored alongside contemporary construction. Traditional Maasai structures form part of the heritage component. Solar energy supports digital access. Rainwater harvesting and climate-smart approaches are incorporated into resilience strategies.
The result is an unusual juxtaposition: a child learning to code in a solar-powered centre while traditional knowledge remains part of the cultural landscape.
“We don’t see innovation as replacing what communities already know,” Irungu says. “The opportunity is to combine local knowledge with new skills, technology and partnerships to solve problems in ways that make sense locally,” he adds.
Innovation Under Pressure
SIEVE was started and is being developed in a part of the country where climate and livelihood challenges are not abstract. Water availability, food security and economic vulnerability directly affect households.
That makes the eco-village’s environmental component as important as its digital one. Under EmpServe’s Thrive pillar, youth and communities work on food security, peace building and climate change.
The organisation describes SIEVE as a “living laboratory” where communities can test practical solutions rather than simply receive them. But resilience cannot be created overnight. Infrastructure, financing, water access and livelihoods remain pressing realities.
SIEVE has been designed as a scalable model for other arid and marginalised communities. The combination of off-grid power, digital centres and climate-smart agriculture provides a framework that can be adjusted locally.
Partnerships have been central to growth, including collaborations with the Ministry of ICT and Digital Economy, Raspberry Pi Foundation, Women WorldWide Web, Global Philanthropy Alliance and universities.
But Irungu cautions that scaling should not simply mean replicating projects.
“Scaling is not just about putting up more centres or reaching more beneficiaries. It is about building stronger local ecosystems that can continue creating opportunities after a particular project or partner is gone.”
EmpServe’s longer-term ambition is to expand youth access to digital and green jobs, increase employment transitions to 50 per cent, grow Code Clubs into more counties and position SIEVE as a regional innovation destination.
In Enduata, Kenya’s digital future is being imagined differently, not disconnected from the land, not detached from culture, and not built for the community from the outside. It is being built with the community itself.