Kenya’s Decarbonization Roadmap: A Shared Commitment to Action

The Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN), together with Kenyan partners, has been convening key voices from government, industry, academia, and civil society to shape the country’s first comprehensive roadmap for decarbonizing buildings and construction.

Kenya’s built environment is growing rapidly—but so are its emissions, material demands, and planning challenges. Without targeted intervention, the country risks locking in decades of carbon-intensive construction.

Two recent workshops—held in November 2024 and April 2025—marked important milestones in the development of Kenya’s Decarbonization Roadmap for Buildings and Construction. These sessions not only validated baseline data and situational analyses but also fostered deep dialogue, shared learning, and consensus on the priorities for transformative change.

Strategic Pillars – From Data to Action

Over the last six months, stakeholders have moved through a structured, iterative process—from establishing working groups to prioritizing action areas, validating data, and mapping out early implementation.

This collaborative model is anchored in three core pillars:

1. Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement

Diverse actors including ministries, municipalities, architects, private developers, academia are informing every stage of the roadmap development process. Kennedy Matheka, Buildings and Climate Coordinator, State Department for Public Works, highlighted the collaborative nature of the roadmap development process.

“GBPN is engaging partners, local and international, to develop the roadmap in an inclusive way, so that at implementation it has covered everyone. The sectoral roadmap is for each of us. With this roadmap, we can guide our partners, our institutions and our business community to a sustainable and greener economy” Mr Matheka said.

Six thematic working groups have formed the engine of this co-creation process.

2. Evidence-Driven Prioritization

Through workshops in November 2024 and April 2025, stakeholders reviewed:

Mumbua Musyimi, GBPN Project Manager said that the roadmap is being built on real data, ensuring every recommendation is backed by facts.

“We wanted this report to reflect reality—not just policy on paper, but what’s actually happening in cities, towns, and villages,” Ms Musyimi said.

3. Locally-Led Innovation

Kenya is already testing low-carbon building solutions—from research on compressed earth blocks at JKUAT, to timber hybrid designs by ARUP, to green construction at Konza Technopolis. Ideas like financial incentives, capacity-building for local stakeholders, and county-level pilot projects were also discussed.

What’s Next: Turning Momentum into Results

The process now enters its next phase: refining indicators, testing early actions, and preparing for launch later in 2025.

As GBPN and its partners work with stakeholders to finalise the roadmap, three key messages are clear:

This is a bottom-up process—built by those who understand the system best.

Change is already happening—and can scale quickly with the right support.

The time to act is now—before future growth locks the country into high emissions and low resilience.

Participants at the 3rd Workshop in Nairobi

A Just and Collaborative Action

Both workshops demonstrated the power of collaborative action and multisectoral dialogue in shaping a just decarbonization roadmap for Kenya. From validating data to identifying actionable priorities, Kenya’s decarbonization journey in the buildings and construction sector is gaining momentum—anchored in local expertise, innovative thinking, and shared responsibility for a climate-safe future.

The Kenya Decarbonization Roadmap for Buildings and Construction is a GBPN-led initiative of the Buildings Breakthrough Agenda.