Kenya: senators who legislate with the future in the room

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What Kenya did

Kenya set out to move its lawmaking beyond crisis-driven policymaking, so that legislation stays relevant beyond political cycles and serves generations to come. The Senate Futures Caucus was established in 2024, and in 2025 held its inaugural Strategic Foresight Retreat, themed "Charting a Future-Oriented Course for Kenya", bringing together Senators, partners and foresight experts in the Maasai Mara. The Caucus builds on strong foundations: Kenya's 2010 Constitution already requires that the burdens and benefits of public resources and debt be shared fairly between present and future generations.

How it Delivered

The retreat equipped lawmakers with practical tools for anticipating long-term challenges, and the Caucus now provides a structured framework for weaving foresight into lawmaking, fiscal planning and devolution. It creates mechanisms to assess the long-term implications of policy decisions before they are made, promoting resilient, fair and sustainable policy across the country. As caucus chair Senator Ledama Olekina put it, the aim is "not just to legislate for the now, but to shape the kind of Kenya we want for our children and their children".

What Made it Work?

The Caucus is bipartisan, which matters. Long-term challenges outlast any single government, and the collaboration across political divides has shown that the future can be common ground. Investing in the capability of legislators and their staff, rather than outsourcing foresight to consultants, means the skills stay in the institution

Future Generations Takeaway

Parliaments are where short-termism is made, and where it can be unmade. Kenya's senators are proving that a legislature can train itself to think in decades. Keeping the future open means building it into the rooms where laws are written.

This case study is based on one kindly shared with us by the us by School of International Futures (SOIF) and can be found in their digital implementation handbook: 'One Year in Practice: Stories of Global Action for Future Generations'.  We have updated and expanded some case studies with more recent developments and additional sources where relevant.