Girl Effect · 2024 to now · Kenya

Tukisonga

A youth brand for Kenya that moved what young people believe, and what they do.

Tukisonga is Swahili for "as we move". It's what friends say to each other to keep going, together.

Two young women laughing beside a red motorbike

My role

Chief Creative & Technology OfficerLeading the creative and technology behind the ecosystem Led brand developmentCo-creating the identity, voice and brand book with young Kenyans Nairobi and MigoriOne city, one rural county, very different realities Part of Tipping PointTesting how youth media can shift norms, not just minds

The brief

Young Kenyans are under huge pressure to succeed, with no set path to get there. Don't just change one girl's mind. Move a whole generation, and the people around them.

Still from the TUKI? trailer: a young couple embracing, she smiles over his shoulder

Tuki? The series

Watch the trailer →

Our TV drama. Robi, a young actress in Nairobi, goes looking for her tribe, and finds out what it takes to keep moving.

Building the brand

Ni time yetu.
It's our time.

I led the development of the Tukisonga brand with young Kenyans. A tribe, not a lecture: conversational, playful and proud, with shapes that move like the people behind them.

A large Tukisonga mural reading We are going places on a city wall

A Tukisonga branded van beside a Ni time yetu poster and phone screens

On the road. A brand loud enough for a matatu.

Tukisonga stickers pinned to a cork board

In their hands. Stickers, merch and lanyards made to be shared.

The brand book. 70 pages of voice, colour, type and pattern, so every creator could ride with us.

How it works

It takes
a tribe.

Drama starts the conversation. Music spreads it. A chatbot answers the private questions. Champions on the ground help young people act.

A Tukisonga poster reading Together we move, with friends lying in a circle

Watch

Tuki?, a TV drama, plus the Tuki Podcast breaking down every episode.

Stories first. Young people talk about Robi before they talk about themselves.

Watch the trailer →

Dance

Our anthem, a call to keep moving and move together.

Music carries the brand into places a health message never could.

Watch the anthem →

Phones showing the Tukisonga app and a You can win challenge

Chat

WAZZII, our confidential WhatsApp chatbot for sex, relationships and contraception.

The questions young people can't ask out loud, answered in private.

Meet WAZZII →

Two young women smiling and making heart signs with their fingers

Show up

Champions: trained young people on the ground, plus screenings and community events.

Where talk turns into action, and a clinic visit.

What changed

Endline vs matched control, 2,287 young people

+27ptsmore young people talking with friends about sexual health.

+14ptsmore young women saying contraception before marriage is OK.

+13ptsin regular contraceptive use among young people reached.

3.3xthe odds of using contraception for young people who met a Champion.

This wasn't just one girl changing her mind. Young men moved most: +24 points believing their friends talk to partners about sexual health.

Difference-in-differences against matched control areas in Nairobi and Migori, 2024 to 2025. Self-reported, ages 18 to 24.

Where people fit

Media moved minds. Champions moved behaviour.

Drama and digital shifted what young people believed was normal. But Champions were the only channel linked to young people actually using contraception.

Same story in South Africa: Jik'iZinto →

What I learned

Move the group, not the girl.Norms shift when a whole peer group moves together. That is the tipping point.

Bring the boys in.Young men shifted most. A girl's choices grow faster when the young men around her change too.

People move behaviour.Media changes what feels normal. A trusted person on the ground is what turns it into action.

Next project Champions App →