Draw the Line for Peace, People, and Planet

Posted by Doddy Collince OKelo on 29-Sep-2025

With the climate crisis pressing harder than ever, Nairobi became a stage for urgency, solidarity, and action. From 19–20 September 2025, the city joined a global wave of mobilisations under the banner Draw the Line, a campaign that began with Indigenous leaders in the Amazon and Pacific and has since become a rallying cry across continents.

The timing was deliberate. Just days earlier, the Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa had concluded, and as the United Nations General Assembly marked its 80th anniversary in New York, African voices were insistent: enough of half-measures, it is time for decisive action. Ten years since the Paris Agreement, global temperatures continue to rise, and Africa, though contributing less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, shoulders the heaviest burden. Droughts, floods, food insecurity, and forced displacement now define daily reality for millions across the continent.

The Nairobi mobilisation set out to confront this injustice by weaving together advocacy, artistry, spirituality, and grassroots organising. It was structured across three days, each carrying a unique weight and purpose.

Friday, 19 September-Interfaith Forum

The movement began at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa with the Interfaith Youth Forum on Peace and Integral Ecology, convened by the JPIC Franciscans Africa and partners. This year’s gathering marked the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’ and the 800th Jubilee of St. Francis’ Canticle of Creatures, grounding ecological justice in faith and spirituality. Hundreds of young people, religious leaders, and civil society actors gathered to reflect on climate justice as a moral, spiritual, and social imperative. Discussions tackled debt cancellation, human rights, and the ecological debt owed by the Global North to the Global South. The conclusion was as urgent as it was unifying that peace with creation is inseparable from peace among people.

Saturday, 20 September-Procession and Carnival

On Saturday, the mobilisation spilled onto Lang’ata Road, where more than 2,000 participants marched from the Kenya Wildlife Service to the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. Skaters, cyclists, schoolchildren, interfaith leaders, human rights defenders, and indigenous groups turned the highway into a moving mural of resistance and hope. The climate carnival and fair at Catholic University of Eastern Africa celebrated diversity through music, art, and cultural expression, symbolising the future Africa wants: one rooted in clean energy, justice, equity, and dignity.

The carnival also amplified the global campaign’s five core demands:

• ·        Energy: End fossil fuels and build fair, financed clean energy systems.
• ·        Finance: Cancel illegitimate debt and provide climate funds as grants, not loans.
• ·        Justice: Put workers, women, youth, and marginalised voices at the centre of climate solutions.
• ·        Democracy: Protect civic space and keep polluters out of politics.
• ·        Peace: Demilitarise climate action and redirect public resources from arms to education, healthcare, and renewable energy.

For Africa, the demands went deeper to end fossil fuel colonialism, pay the climate debt, and return land and food sovereignty to local communities. Campaigners highlighted ongoing threats such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), LNG projects in Mozambique, and drilling in the Congo Basin, insisting that these projects displace communities, destroy ecosystems, and trap Africa in poverty.

Saturday closed with community-driven events and digital mobilisation. Online, activists leveraged the Strava platform for the “Draw the Line for 1.5°C” virtual action, allowing thousands across Africa to participate in drawing lines on a virtual plane, proof that climate justice must be inclusive, extending even to those unable to march physically.

Offline, local groups held reflection circles, amplified learnings from the carnival, and mapped next steps toward COP30. The mobilisation’s spirit spilled into churches, schools, and grassroots forums, proving it was not a one-off spectacle but a stepping stone in long-term climate justice advocacy.

What Nairobi witnessed was a declaration that Africa refuses to be a passive victim of the climate crisis. It was a demand that global leaders stop negotiating Africa’s future in closed-door boardrooms while communities bear the brunt of climate breakdown. From Nairobi to Johannesburg, from Cotonou to Suva, the Draw the Line mobilisation carried one resounding truth: our future belongs to people, not polluters.

As the world heads to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the call from Nairobi is unambiguous: no more empty dialogue, maximise action. Stop fossil fuels. Deliver climate finance. Protect people and planet. Sikiliza Sauti Yetu: Dunia Inaita, listen to our voice, the world is calling.