Kenya: The City That Wakes Up Running

Nairobi — The parking lot at Nairobi's KOFISI Square fills up well before 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Gone are the hangover sunglasses and bleary faces suggesting a big Friday night out. The people stretching against the curb, adjusting their running watches, or just standing and chatting as the sun rises look fresh-faced and eager.

Emily Chepkor is a lawyer and an 11-time marathoner. In October 2022, she was also the person who convinced three friends to join her for a Saturday morning run.

Follow us on WhatsApp | LinkedIn for the latest headlines

"Nairobi is a party city, a feel-good city. We wait for Friday," she says. "But now we're changing the culture. People are sacrificing their Friday nights, or shifting them, because they want to rise early and run."

What started with four people jogging on the pavement has grown into We Run Nairobi, now the largest free running community in the city, drawing hundreds of people to its Saturday sessions at Riverside Square every week.

A growing trend towards improved health awareness in Kenya is not limited to running. Cycling, skating, hiking and other activities have become popular in light of a deepening health crisis in urban Kenya. According to WHO Kenya's 2025 annual report, NCDs account for 41 per cent of all deaths and half of all hospital admissions in the country.

At Kenya's inaugural National NCD Conference in Nairobi in November 2025, Dr. Ouma Oluga, Principal Secretary for Medical Services, described the issue as one of the country's most pressing public health challenges and called the conference a milestone moment in addressing it.

For many participants, We Run Nairobi has become an alternative to fitness spaces that often feel inaccessible.

Gorgina Atieno had spent years knowing she needed to get fit but struggling to commit to a gym routine.

"The gym felt like a chore," she says. "It's expensive, crowded, and intimidating."

What she found instead at We Run Nairobi was a free outdoor community where people consistently showed up every week, not just to run, but to encourage one another.

Hundreds of runners now fill Nairobi's streets on Saturday mornings, many carrying similar stories of wanting movement without the pressure often attached to traditional fitness culture.

The accessibility is part of what sets the club apart. While other running groups charge Ksh 600-1,800 for runs and to cover a post-run meal, We Run Nairobi charges nothing.

Malia, a law student following the 75 Hard fitness programme, discovered the club through Instagram and decided to join.

"I love the community and seeing people together being healthy," she says. "It's all really intentional. The specific warm-up times, the distances, the cool-down. For me, exercising outdoors was a requirement for my journey, and this community spoke to me personally."

The run itself is only part of the experience. After the routes end, many participants stay behind to eat, socialise, and build friendships. Malia says that is where much of the real networking happens.

"It's optional," she adds. "Yet we're all here."

The club's visibility has now stretched far beyond Nairobi's running circles. Chepkor is currently a brand ambassador for the Swiss running company On, and the club recently co-hosted a lifestyle run at Windsor Golf Club that attracted more than 500 people.

That a global sportswear company came to Nairobi looking for a running club started by a lawyer and three friends says something about how quickly the movement has grown.

Alfredo St. Forbes, a lead coach with a degree in health science and certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), says the cultural shift is becoming visible beyond fitness itself.

"A few months ago, even the alcohol industry was complaining that they're not getting as much revenue," he says. "Gen Zs and millennials are starting to pick up what it means to be athletic as a lifestyle. Kenya is becoming an athletic nation."

Behind the growth of We Run Nairobi, however, was a much more personal struggle.

Before WRN existed, Chepkor had been navigating one of the hardest periods of her professional life. After working in public international law, she made the difficult decision to transition into traditional legal practice, a move that effectively required her to start over.

"You're starting from the very bottom once again. You're taking a cut in everything," she says. "There's a dissonance with where you're at, where you should be, where your peers are."

That uncertainty lasted for nearly three years. Through it all, running became the one constant she refused to lose.