Wikimedia Kenya UserGroup 2025 Annual Project/Activity Report
We imagine a Kenya where everyone can freely access, create, and share accurate knowledge.
Executive Summary
[edit]Message from the Team Lead
"2025 was a year of coordination, growth, and strategic reflection for Wikimedia Kenya User Group (WMKE). With the continued support of the Wikimedia Foundation’s General Support Fund, our community deepened its impact on content quality, community building, and leadership development, while also confronting the realities of rapid growth, resource constraints, volunteer burnout and an evolving operating environment.
As Team Lead, I am particularly proud of how our community responded to these dynamics: by prioritizing collaboration, peer leadership, and learning. We grew our community editor base by 51%, strengthened governance and leadership structures, and focused on a smaller number of high-impact global campaigns with local relevance, emphasizing quality contributions, skills development, and partnerships.
Coordination of Global Campaigns WMKE implemented five major Wikimedia campaigns in 2025, each aligned with thematic priorities such as human rights, gender equity, culture, and Kenyan knowledge representation: with strong local relevance. Importantly, 2025 also marked a transition year, as we developed our 2026–2027 Strategic Plan, laying the groundwork for our priorities.
We also in collaboration with fellow EARTHub and other Regional leaders hosted the 20th edition of Wikimania, which had a record number of African Wikimedians in attendance to date.
This report reflects not only what we achieved, but what we learned and how those learnings are shaping our next phase as a growing Wikimedia movement Affiliate committed to advancing knowledge equity in Kenya." - Winnie Kabintie - Team Lead & Co Founder
Impact Overview
[edit]In 2025, Wikimedia Kenya User Group advanced its mission to promote free access to knowledge through community building, localized content creation, and leadership development.
100% of planned activities were successfully completed. Key results include:
- 51% growth in the active editor community (73 editors, up from 49 in 2024)
- significant growth in Swahili-language documentation and editor growth base.
- Retention: recorded a 90% member retention for another year running.
- 5 global Wikimedia campaigns successfully localized and delivered.
- 150+ contributors trained, with a 20% improvement in on-wiki contributions.
- 8.9+ million article views on new and improved pages.
- 100% of the total approved budget spent by year-end.
Grant Goals and Objectives
[edit]The 2025 General Support Fund focused on three core objectives:
- Community Building – Expanding and sustaining an active Wikimedia editor community in Kenya.
- Coordination of Global Campaigns and Events – Implementing Wikimedia global campaigns while localizing content relevant to Kenya and Africa.
- Leadership Development – Strengthening individual, community, and organizational leadership.
Our Work-Progress Snapshot
[edit]- 100% of planned activities completed.
- 51% community growth in 12 months.
- 5 successful Wikimedia campaigns delivered: Art& Feminism, Wiki for Human Rights, AfroCreatives & Months of African Cinema and Wiki Loves Africa.
- 3 in-person stakeholder engagement and capacity-building workshops held.
- 6 virtual on-wiki community trainings conducted.
- 2 structured newcomer onboarding sessions.
- Retention: We once again for another year running, recorded a 90% member retention.
- 31% increase in media visibility from 2024.
Community Growth and Capacity Building
[edit]Community Growth Community development remained central to WMKE’s work in 2025. The User Group grew from 49 editors in 2024 to 73 editors in 2025, representing a 51% increase.
This growth is largely attributed to effective outreach strategies, the satisfaction of existing members as they have been the biggest ambassadors,low barriers to membership, combined with outreach to marginalized communities, particularly in coastal Kenya, where we are launching our first Wiki Club in 2026, helped diversify participation and foster a sense of belonging.
Hosting Wikimania 2025 and local & social media visibilty also helped to raise awareness about our work, movement and community.
Newcomer Onboarding - We curated well-designed forums for newcomer onboarding, orientation and data collection, where new members were sensitized on our movement, community values and objectives; introduced to Wikimedia projects and guided in creating user accounts.
A total of 22 newcomers were onboarded by end of September and remained actively engaged through edit-a-thons, trainings, and mentorship.
Retention: We once again for another year running, recorded a 90% member retention.
Efforts to maintain low barriers to entry, combined with outreach to marginalized communities, particularly in coastal Kenya, where we are launching our first Wiki Club in 2026, helped diversify participation and foster a sense of belonging.
Capacity Building Outcomes
150+ editors trained across workshops and virtual sessions resulting to 20% improvement in on-wiki contributions. Training areas included:
- Wikimedia Commons Policies.
- Wikipedia Editing Basics.
- Translation Tools.
- Fact-checking and Research Skills.
- Leadership Development.
- Capacity-building Initiatives- emphasized quality contributions, reflected in increased article improvements and stronger sourcing practices.
Editorial Contributions and Impact
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Community editors made substantial contributions across Wikimedia projects in 2025:
* 8.9 million article views
* 1,900+ total edits
* 75 active editors
* 700+ Wikimedia Commons uploads
* 6,000+ references added
* 100+ news articles documented'
More than 100 articles relevant to Kenya’s people, arts, culture, human rights, and environment were rescued from deletion, highlighting the community’s growing focus on improving existing content and strengthening notability through the use of reliable sources.
Programmatic Activities and Outcomes
[edit]We focused on a smaller number of high-impact programs, emphasizing quality contributions, skills development, and partnerships.
Coordination of Global Campaigns: WMKE implemented four major Wikimedia campaigns in 2025, each aligned with thematic priorities such as human rights, gender equity, culture, and Kenyan knowledge representation.
Wiki Loves Africa 2025 – Focused on visual documentation of local livelihoods & agriculture under the global campaign theme: “From Farm to plate”, resulting in 225 Commons uploads by participants, mostly newcomers.
Wiki for Human Rights 2025 – Delivered alongside Wikimania-related engagements, leading to 120+ improved articles, 10 new articles, and 200+ new citations, and convening editors and civil society actors for conversations around information integrity and access to information.
Art+Feminism 2025 (Pwani University) – Advanced gender equity and Swahili-language content resulting to over 100 articles created, with the majority being on Swahili Wikipedia, translation of over 50 articles from enwiki to swahili, and partnerships with community-based organizations, while laying the groundwork for a university Wiki Club.
SheSaid 2025 (WikiQuotes) – Amplified women’s voices through 66 new Wikiquotes created by 28 editors.
'AfroCreatives+ Months of African Cinema' - Bridged Wikipedia’s content gaps on Kenya’s film and creative sectors, positioning open knowledge as a tool for cultural preservation and industry visibility and documentation under the theme, “Amplifying Kenya’s Creative Industry Through Open Knowledge & Collaboration.”
- 1 capacity-building workshop and edit-a-thon focused on documenting African and Kenyan cinema.
- A high-level creatives roundtable convening 15 key representatives from government, media, film agencies, regulators, and the creative sector, including Senior leadership from the Kenya Film Commission and the Kenya Film Classification Board, leading to increased awareness of Wikimedia platforms as infrastructure for documenting and promoting Kenya’s creative and film industries.
Leadership and Organizational Development
[edit]2025 marked a milestone year for leadership growth:
- Collaborative Learning Initiative (CLI) Leadership Fellowship: Co-founders Carol and Winnie completed a 10-month Pan-African leadership fellowship by the Issroff Foundation that enhanced their leadership and project management skills.
- WMF Affiliate Communications Training: One core team member trained in Cohort 1.
- Leadership Structure Formalized:
- Introduction of a Regional Coordinator role to oversee our coastal Kenya Community Activation and Outreach.
- Core team expanded from 3 to 8 members.
- Board formation and organization registration discussions initiated.
- Strategic Plan 2026–2027 development
Partnerships & Collaboration
[edit]Regional Peers & Cross Affiliate Collaboration - We engaged and consulted regional Affiliate leaders in our strategic Plan Development and continued to collaborate with communities under EARTHub, especially the ones we were engaged in the CLI fellowship with; Wikimedia Tanzania, Open Knowledge Arusha and Wikimedia Uganda.
Non-Wikimedia entities - We collaborated with KEYLibraries for a joint Wikimania session titled Bridging the Digital Divide: The Role of Libraries in Supporting Access to Information and discussions are underway for a sustainable collaboration on projects in 2026.
We also collaborated with two other non-profits; The Economic and Social Rights Centre (Hakijamii) and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature Kenya (WWF-Kenya), for a panel discussion during our workshop for human rights workshop. Baraza Media Lab also supported our Months of African Cinema campaign by providing a venue.
Affiliate Health & Governance
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Community Engagement
WMKE sustained regular community engagements and inclusive decision making through monthly meetings, open communication channels (WhatsApp and email), peer-to-peer collaboration and the annual General Meeting. These platforms promoted transparency, trust-building, and continuous feedback between the user group leadership and members.
Key Engagement Approaches included:
- Monthly community meet-ups and coordination meetings.
- Open and responsive communication channels.
- Regular 1:1 Engagements between Team Lead and Organizers before and after campaigns executions that ensured teams had all the support needed and understood the overall programmatic objectives and desired outcomes.
- Peer-to-peer leadership development and mentorship.
- Low barriers to new entries to encourage newcomer participation, with a focus on marginalized communities in coastal Kenya.
Challenges, Learning, and Adaptation
[edit]Key Challenges Encountered
- Inflation and unforeseen operational costs led to budget constraints.
- University academic calendars limit continuous student participation.
- Volunteer burnout/ emerging signs of volunteer burnout.
- Rapid community growth increased coordination, logistics and support demands.
- Increased administrative work with the fiscal sponsor modalities.
Kenya Film Commission, Kenya Film Classification Board & Baraza Media Lab Heads pose for a group photo with Wikimedia Kenya Reps during the Creatives Roundtable hosted by the User Group
Learning and Adaptation
2025 provided critical insights that are informing WMKE’s strategic direction:
- Planning buffers are essential: Delays reinforced the need for earlier funding requests from the fiscal sponsor (FS) and longer lead-in periods for campaigns.
- Quality over quantity: Increased focus on improving existing articles and rescuing content from deletion reflects a maturing editor community and aligns with long-term content sustainability.
- Leadership and Collective Power works: Peer-to-peer leadership and assigning responsibility to newer members improved engagement and reduced over-reliance on core leaders.
- Growth requires structure: Rapid community expansion highlighted the importance of formal governance, clearer roles, and scalable newcomer onboarding processes.
Adaptation Measures Implemented
Regular check-ins between the Team Lead and campaign coordinators proved essential in enhancing capacity building and providing strategic direction. Earlier submission of funds disbursements from the FS, campaign plans peer reviews, segmentation of editors by interest areas and skill levels, expanded core team (from 3 to 8 members) to strengthen governance, initiation of board formation discussions and integration of learning outcomes into the 2026–2027 Strategic Plan.
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Annual General Meeting (AGM)
[edit]In 2025, Wikimedia Kenya User Group successfully convened its Annual General Meeting (AGM) virtually on 17th December, providing a critical platform for accountability, reflection, and collective decision-making. The AGM:
- Presented a review of programmatic achievements, financial performance, and challenges from the 2025 grant year.
- Enabled community members to engage directly with the leadership through questions, feedback, and recommendations.
- Strengthened transparency and trust around financial management, programmes and decision-making.
- Reinforced shared ownership of the User Group’s strategic direction.
- Formalized discussions on leadership transitions and registration of the affiliate as a Non-Profit Organization in Kenya.
- Importantly, the AGM also served as a strategic checkpoint ahead of the 2026–2027 planning cycle.
Community feedback gathered during the AGM informed priorities for governance strengthening, editor support, and partnership development, and directly contributed to the ongoing development of the 2026–2027 Strategic Plan.
Conclusion and Future Plans
[edit]2025 marked a strategic year for Wikimedia Kenya User Group, one that combined growth, Strategy, and reflection. Through the Wikimedia Foundation’s General Support Fund, WMKE strengthened its community, improved the quality and reach of Kenyan and African content, and invested in leadership systems that will sustain the movement locally.
The lessons from 2025 are directly shaping our 2026–2027 Strategic Plan, with a stronger emphasis on partnerships, realistic timelines, editors/members wellbeing, and long-term impact. As we move forward, Wikimedia Kenya UG remains committed to advancing knowledge equity through collaboration, culture, and community.
Financial Overview
[edit]We received a total Annual Planning Grant of $20,000. By 20th December 2025, all our planned activities had been completed, and 100% of the total grant amount utilized as per approved budgets.
| Item | Budget | Expenditure | Balance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff/Contractor Costs | 490,000 | 560,000 | -70,000 | |
| Operational Costs | 445,700 | 350,616 | 95,018 | |
| Programmatic Costs | 1,540,716 | 1,593,734 | -53,018 | |
| Total Cost | 2,476,416 | 2,504,350 | -27,934 |
Supporting documentation
[edit]Campaign Meta pages
- [Art & Feminism in Kenya 2025]
- Wiki For Human Rights Ke
- Wiki Loves Africa
- Months of African Cinema/Afrocine Kenya
“Shaping Knowledge Equity through Collaboration, Culture, and Community.”