What began with four women lacing up their running shoes on Nairobi’s streets three years ago has transformed into a movement reshaping the city’s weekend culture. We Run Nairobi, founded by Emily Chepkor in 2022, has grown to become Kenya’s largest running club, regularly drawing between 300 and 400 participants on Saturday mornings and peaking at over 1,200 runners during sponsored events. The club’s rapid rise has made it a defining symbol of a broader fitness revolution taking hold across the Kenyan capital in 2025.
The club’s most recent milestone came during a free lifestyle run held at Windsor Golf Club, co-hosted with Swiss sportswear brand On. The event drew more than 500 attendees, making it one of the largest organized recreational runs in recent Nairobi history. The partnership with an international brand signals not only the club’s growing prestige but also the commercial appeal of Kenya’s emerging urban fitness community, which global sportswear labels are increasingly eager to align themselves with.
Emily Chepkor launched We Run Nairobi with a straightforward idea — to create a welcoming, inclusive space for women to run together in a city where public exercise was not always considered safe or socially common for women. Starting with just four participants, Chepkor built the community through word of mouth and social media, offering free weekly runs that required no registration, no fees, and no competitive pressure. That philosophy of radical accessibility has remained central to the club’s identity and is widely credited for its extraordinary growth.
The club’s success arrives as Nairobi experiences a notable running boom. Across the city’s parks, estates, and roads, more residents are taking up running as a lifestyle choice rather than a pursuit reserved for elite athletes. Other groups have also seen increased membership, but We Run Nairobi stands apart for its scale and its role in normalizing running as a social activity for ordinary Kenyans. The movement carries particular weight in a country that already holds legendary status in global athletics, yet where recreational running has historically been less organized at the grassroots level.
The implications for Kenya’s health and wellness sector are significant. As urban Kenyans contend with rising rates of lifestyle diseases including hypertension, diabetes, and obesity — challenges flagged as growing concerns across sub-Saharan Africa — community-led fitness initiatives like We Run Nairobi offer an accessible and culturally resonant response. With international sponsors now actively investing in the club’s events and membership numbers continuing to climb, observers expect the model to inspire similar grassroots running communities in Mombasa, Kisumu, and other Kenyan cities in the years ahead, carrying Emily Chepkor’s founding vision far beyond Nairobi’s Saturday morning streets.
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