From growing up without electricity to running a community digital centre
What you need to know:
- Martin notes that as the co-founder and Executive Director, his roles include leading the organisation’s strategy, spearheading programmes implementation, and managing teams.
- “So far, the organisation has impacted over 10,000 people. We run two innovation hubs in Nairobi and Kajiado offering basic, intermediate and advanced digital skills coupled with social entrepreneurship.
- "We also incubate ideas and startups to make them investor-ready," he says.
Like any other child, Martin Irungu had a dream career growing up. He wanted to be a medical doctor.
However, something kept pushing him in another direction. He grew up in a remote village, with no access to electricity. Technology was not popular, and phones were rare. His interaction with computers was therefore delayed as the primary and secondary schools that he attended had no electricity.
On his final secondary school examination, Martin scored a B+, which enabled him to secure a spot at Kenyatta University.
“I passed my exams by God’s grace, because I wouldn’t say it was a result of hard work. Kenyatta University was my mother’s dream university,” he adds.
Martin recalls a day in 2008 when his mother told him, “I hear in university, you need to do your assignments with a computer. We need to find a way for you to study computer packages,” she said.
Martin’s elder brother, Ken, happened to have travelled to the US around this time and he pledged to buy Martin a laptop. That was a huge investment at that time,” adds Martin.
He took the computer packages course, and on completion, he secured a teaching job in one of the local schools as he awaited to join Kenyatta University.
During this period, the World Bank was involved in a project to bring power to his village.
“When I found out about the Last Mile project, my desire to empower my community was ignited. I formed a youth group, Vision Youth Network, where myself and eight friends who were waiting to join various universities bought four refurbished computers, and started a community digital centre. There I was the lead trainer for hundreds of community members,” says Martin.
He adds that the digital centre is functional to date, and is run by some of his trainees.
“I ended up taking an undergraduate degree in community resource management and later a Master’s in the same field. After my fourth year, I had a dream to create a platform that would scale initiatives to empower marginalised communities,” he says.
Thus, Empower and Serve Kenya (EmpServe) was born in 2016. It is an entity that helps to build the capacities of young people through skilling, upskilling and incubating social impact initiatives.
“I worked with a team of co-founders where we believed that if young people are given the necessary tools, opportunities and support, they could create jobs and launch initiatives to solve the world's most pressing challenges,” he says.
To harness the potential and capabilities of the communities, EmpServe has focused mainly on skills enhancement, enterprise development, and linking the beneficiaries to local and global opportunities while at the same time tapping into the power of communities to develop and build their own solutions.
“EmpServe aims to promote the interests of young and vulnerable communities in rural, urban areas and informal settlements and increase their participation in community and national development. We are currently launching our flagship project, the Social Innovation Eco-Village in Kajiado to promote grassroots innovation ecosystems," he says.
Martin notes that as the co-founder and Executive Director, his roles include leading the organisation’s strategy, spearheading programmes implementation, and managing teams.
“So far, the organisation has impacted over 10,000 people. We run two innovation hubs in Nairobi and Kajiado offering basic, intermediate and advanced digital skills coupled with social entrepreneurship. We also incubate ideas and startups to make them investor-ready," he says.
One of their latest projects is the recently launched EmpowerHub, an accelerator dedicated to empowering individuals through incubation, digital job transitions, entrepreneurship support, and market access. It specialises in skilling, outsourcing digital gigs, business consulting, and market linkages.
Among the challenges they face is limited funding.
“We always have a long list of young people who want to join our programme, but we are unable to enroll them. We also have young people, especially from the grassroots communities who cannot access our hubs due to logistical and economic challenges. This exclusion often leads them to sink deeper into poverty,” he adds.
Martin works with several partners and refers some of the programmes’ participants to other stakeholders.
“We are also working on setting up a residential innovation village to address some of the barriers we face in our programming,” he says.
Martin says his goal is to grow as an astute advocate for young people, championing for a more just and inclusive ecosystem that does not discriminate against the poor and marginalised.
“My dream is to have EmpServe Kenya act as a pacesetter in promoting employability among the youth and creating an environment that enables them to take action, solve eminent community challenges and seize global opportunities,” he adds.
