Kwale Tech Hub is a youth-led organisation that has become a key provider of free digital training to impoverished youths in one of Kenya’s most remote regions.
Kwale County lies along the country’s Indian Ocean coast. Whilst popular globally for its white-sand beaches and World Heritage Sites, the region actually has a poverty rate of 47.4 percent, making it one of the poorest in the country. In spite of its popularity as a tourist destination, there are very limited formal employment opportunities in the region.
Another problem is the lack of reliable electricity and internet access in many parts of Kwale County. This is why Kwale Tech Hub was established. Its aim is to increase access to digital skills and connectivity, especially in rural coastal areas.
The firm has been in operation since 2018 and targets young people aged 16 to 34, mostly in Kwale County. Through the hub’s training programs, which primarily provide computer literacy, the region’s youth benefit from a range of courses including coding, web development and digital marketing. The students are also taken through training in entrepreneurship.
“We believe that when youth are equipped with digital skills, mentorship, and creative confidence, they can turn local challenges into opportunities, building solutions that uplift families, communities and the entire region,” Jembe Hussein Jembe, Kwale Tech Hub’s Executive Director, told RESET.
“Through our programs, young people learn to code, design, innovate and lead, while developing the resilience and leadership needed to thrive in today’s interconnected world.”
Training is free to all participants. The trainees are taught basic computer operation, how to use office software and introductory programming.
“My income has increased by 20 percent this year”
In addition to general digital skills, the hub runs specialised tracks such as the AgriTech program. This teaches youth how to develop simple crop-monitoring applications.
Under the same AgriTech program, trainees learn how to set up SMS services that send daily market prices and weather updates to farmers. These services form part of the hub’s outreach work, and through them, farmers receive messages that help them decide when to harvest and when to sell their produce.
“Thanks to the training from Kwale Tech Hub, I have learned to use digital marketing to place my farm produce in the markets beyond our village. I now sell my vegetables directly to customers in the big cities. I no longer go through middlemen, who have all along been taking much of my profits,” explained Mary Wanjiku, an e-marketplace seller who benefitted from the hub’s programs.
“We equip young farmers and entrepreneurs to overcome erratic rains and market barriers by combining agricultural know-how with ICT” explains Kwale Tech Hub.
David Ochieng is one of the farmers who have subscribed to the hub’s outreach programs. He told RESET about the benefits of receiving timely and tailored alerts. These provide the needed market intelligence for his farming venture. “The SMS price alerts help me sell at the best time. My income has increased by 20 percent this year,” he explained.
Environmental modelling is essential for low-lying regions
One of the firm’s modules is a Climate Justice Innovation program that trains participants to create tools for environmental monitoring. Some of the projects under this initiative include community-based weather stations and mobile alerts for flooding risks in the Shimba Hills area. There are at least 500 young people who take part in this initiative each year.
Members of Kwale Tech Hub engage parners on a peacebuilding joint initiative. Kwale Tech Hub is also involved in peacebuilding initiatives, given the region’s ethnic diversity and land-related tensions. Under its “Digital Peace Platforms” course, learners are taught to create social-media forums that facilitate early dispute reporting and peaceful dialogue.
“At Kwale Tech Hub, our vision is clear and powerful. We seek to achieve a future where young people are the architects of their own destiny, catalysing economic growth, fostering resilience, and leading positive change across Kwale and beyond. Every project we run, every partnership we build, and every young person we mentor is part of this larger mission to ignite innovation, expand opportunity, and reshape the narrative of what it means to grow up in Kwale,” Jembe told RESET.
More than 7,000 individuals have completed at least one training program. The majority of them are from rural villages within Kwale County.
The hub’s support comes from a combination of local and international grants, contributions from the Kwale County government and community crowdfunding campaigns. There are at least five formal partnership agreements with non-governmental organisations and development agencies.
New frontiers in Artificial Intelligence
In a recent development, the firm has partnered with Ukulima Hub to create Ukulima AI. This intelligent farming innovation has been designed to empower farmers with data-driven insights.
“Through this partnership, we’re combining technology, local knowledge, and innovation to transform agriculture across Kwale and beyond – ensuring that every farmer can make smarter decisions, increase productivity, and build climate resilience,” Kwale Tech Hub announced in late 2025.
Ukulima AI is a tool that is being developed with the aim of giving small-scale farmers basic data on crop health, rainfall patterns and market movements. In this way, the tool will help farmers make routine decisions such as when to water their crops, when to harvest, or when to sell. In the absence of digital access, such information is usually hard to access in rural areas.
“I have witnessed firsthand how young minds in our county are breaking barriers and redefining what is possible through technology, innovation and community action,” said Jembe. “At Kwale Tech Hub, we believe that every young person deserves a fair chance to learn, create, and lead regardless of where they come from.”
