Kenyan rugby sevens star Kevin Wekesa: Climate injustices hit sport

Kenyan rugby sevens star Kevin Wekesa said that while most prominent climate advocates are from North America and Europe, the conversation is deeply relevant in Kenya. “In Kenya, we see the effects in rising heat, cracked pitches and changing weather in communities where young athletes are growing up,” he told The Guardian.

A year before competing in his first Olympics at Paris 2024, Wekesa responded to Kenya’s relegation from the top tier of international sevens by offering free rugby coaching in schools. After traveling to a school in Kirinyaga on the slopes of Mount Kenya, he found the field dry and unplayable, forcing cancellation. A student told him conditions had been similar for two months; another suggested climate change was the cause.

“I thought to myself, if it’s already affecting this level of sport, what about at the highest level?” Wekesa founded Play Green that year, linking sport with climate action. In 2025, he won an IOC Climate Action Award for initiatives including leading Kenya’s national sevens teams to use reusable water bottles, saving about 1,000 plastic bottles per week.

Wekesa aims to extend his influence beyond the national setup, pushing for a ban on single-use plastic in Kenyan rugby clubs and tournaments. “If I can eliminate plastic directly from all the clubs in Kenya, it can eventually grow organically to other sports in the country,” he said. In April, he met Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, to discuss reducing single-use plastic at the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which Kenya will co-host.

Play Green also focuses on climate education in Kenyan schools. “We work with children because they are inheriting the climate crisis, not because they are causing it,” Wekesa said. “Kenyan children have a very small carbon footprint compared to children growing up in high-carbon economies like northern Europe, yet they are often more exposed to the consequences: drought, floods, heat, water shortages, food insecurity, illness and missed school. I am not blaming European children but I must highlight climate injustices.”

Play Green treats children not as victims but as active participants. “For me, climate action is practical, visible, and rooted in community, just like rugby,” Wekesa said. He explained that many children in vulnerable communities are aware of climate change, but education empowers them to take small actions such as conserving water.

After giving climate talks and playing rugby with students, Wekesa tasks them with adopting trees planted by Play Green, writing their names on labels. When he realized children were sometimes too hungry to play rugby after school, Play Green began planting fruit trees — avocado, mango, guava and indigenous species — to provide nourishment. He is also piloting a scheme providing wholegrain porridge.

The trees planted depend on local climate, learned from visits to the Kenya Forest Reserve. Wekesa acknowledged that planting trees is not the most effective carbon reduction method, but in addition to nutrition, they give students “a sense of belonging” and provide shade for outdoor classrooms. “I remember many times doing a literature lesson under a tree when it was too hot to be in a classroom,” he said.

Throughout May, Wekesa is teaching rugby, distributing pre-used balls and planting fruit trees in 10 schools interested in joining Play Green. He has held workshops in over 40 Kenyan schools and planted more than 6,200 trees. Some students who participated in early workshops have introduced Play Green initiatives to new schools as they advanced in their education.

Wekesa, 25, recently finished his mechanical engineering degree. He recognizes his own carbon footprint from travel and tries to minimize it. He said that others’ pledges, such as using sustainable transport to attend sports events, motivate him to do more because it shows people engage with climate change through sport. “It creates a wider group of people who are like a Play Green team around the world.”