By Milliam Murigi
Though young people are moving in search of jobs and education, deteriorating environmental conditions and conflict are also key contributors.
Dominic Godana, PanAfricare Kenya Country Director, shared during a two- day national policy dialogue at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. The dialogue brought together policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, universities and young people to examine the links between environmental change, climate change, conflict and human mobility.
“Climate change and environmental challenges are driving human mobility, while shifting weather patterns and resource-based conflicts re threatening community resilience,” said Godana
According to him, climate-related pressures such as prolonged droughts, floods and the loss of livelihoods are increasingly influencing decisions by young people to leave their homes in search of safer environments and better opportunities.
In areas affected by conflict and resource scarcity, these pressures can become even more pronounced, forcing young people and their families to move, sometimes with limited options or preparation.
“This means that migration and mobility among young people can no longer be addressed separately from discussions on climate change, environmental degradation and conflict,” Godana said.
He called for policies that recognize these interconnected drivers and strengthening young people’s access to information, education, employment and climate adaptation opportunities.
Godana also stressed the importance of involving young people in policy discussions so that interventions addressing climate- and conflict-related mobility reflect their experiences and the realities they face.
“Youth mobility should be driven by opportunity and choice, not distress or conflict,” he emphasized.
Dr. Selly Kimosop, Environment Secretary, State Department for Environment, Climate change and Forestry said that climate change is increasingly becoming a daily reality for millions of Kenyans.
In a speech read on her behalf by Dominic Mumbu, head environmental policies at the same department, she noted that Kenya and the wider Horn of Africa are experiencing cycles of multi-season droughts and flash floods, with the impacts particularly severe because many people depend on climate-sensitive agriculture and pastoralism.
As fertile land and clean water become scarce, Dr. Kimosop said, competition over shrinking resources is increasing tensions between communities and contributing to localized conflicts.
“When an area becomes uninhabitable or too dangerous to live in, human mobility becomes driven by stress and the need to survive,” she said.
Young people according to Dr. Kimosop are particularly exposed to the consequences of this cycle. With more than 70 per cent of Kenya’s population under the age of 35, he said the country’s youth have significant potential to contribute to climate resilience but are also among those most affected when local economies collapse.
She revealed that the government wants to change this trajectory by ensuring migration is increasingly driven by opportunities rather than environmental distress.
“Young people may be among the first to move to urban centres when livelihoods fail, placing additional pressure on already stretched infrastructure and potentially exposing them to economic exploitation and marginalization,” Dr. Kimosop said.
Maureen Kiambuthi, from Kenya’s National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM), said migration itself is not a new response to environmental pressures in the Horn of Africa.
Communities have historically moved in response to changing environmental conditions, making mobility an important adaptation strategy. However, what is changing is the complexity of the factors influencing movement.
“Climate and environmental pressures increasingly intersect with livelihoods, conflict, economic pressures and access to resources, making it difficult to attribute migration to a single cause,” says Kiambuthi.
This complexity, she said, means climate mobility cannot be addressed by one government department, institution or country acting alone. National and county governments, regional bodies, civil society organizations, academia, communities and development partners need to work together to understand and respond to emerging mobility pressures.
The dialogue is being held under the Managing the impacts of environmental change and conflict on mobility in Eastern Africa through evidence-based inclusive policy dialogue and collaborative actions (MECMEA) project.
MECMEA is an 18-month regional project launched in 2025 to strengthen governance and policy responses to human mobility associated with climate change, environmental degradation and conflict in Eastern Africa.
The project is led by the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network (HoAREC&N) at Addis Ababa University and implemented with the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), Association Djibouti Nature, South Sudan Nature Conservation Organization and PanAfricare Kenya. It is funded by the European Union through the Migration and Mobility Dialogue (MMD III) Grant Facility and contracted by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
