Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO) is a non profit making community-based organisation formed by members from the local community living adjacent to the globally important Kikuyu Escarpment forests. The idea of the group was conceived in 1992 after realisation that the surrounding environment was being degraded through destruction of the forest. Two of the founder members by then had joined the local universities and acquired some knowledge on forests and natural resources. They hatched the idea of a youth group in the form of a 'think-tank' which would address environmental issues as a core, but also other wider social issues affecting the youth within this society.
 
A 'community think-and-do-tank' the Kijabe Young Volunteers was created in 1994 to implement the awareness campaign, and it was subsequently officially registered as Kijabe Environment Volunteers (KENVO) in 1996.
 
They managed to woo in a few other interested individuals into a loose group bound by these basic principles. This small group, which can perhaps be referred to as the founders of KENVO then conducted a study which established that limited community awareness (of the forest's value) and poverty were key factors leading to the forest degradation. This original work recommended the initiation of an awareness campaign on the value and importance of the forest to the adjacent community. Subsequent research has confirmed that most of solutions to forest predicaments indeed lie with members of the local community themselves.