The Millennium Community Development Initiatives (MCDI) is a registered, community based organization (CBO) established in 2005 by a group of volunteers who hail from poor communities in Kenya. Drawn from diverse professional backgrounds, the MCDI Volunteers share a common desire to promote home-grown solutions to the environmental and livelihood challenges facing rural and peri-urban communities in Kenya.

MCDI is founded on the belief that poverty in Kenya can be reduced through better governance and management of natural resources and seeks to tap into the potential of Kenyans from diverse professional backgrounds to contribute to environmental conservation through voluntary initiatives.

MCDI Vision: Empowered communities using natural resources to meet their livelihood needs while conserving the resources for the benefit of future generations.

MCDI’s Mission: To enhance the capacity of communities to design and implement home-grown solutions to their diverse environmental challenges.

Since 2013, MCDI has been focusing on the Athi River watershed. At approx. 400 kilometers long, the Athi River is the second longest river in Kenya. It starts as springs and streams in Kajiado and Kiambu counties, which then flow through the city of Nairobi, onto the semi-arid Ukambani region and ultimately flows into the Indian Ocean in Kilifi County. MCDI facilitates communities living along the river to understand their rights and responsibilities under the Water Act and other environmental laws, and also helps them to form and strengthen their Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs) and Community Forestry Associations (CFAs), so that they can claim their rights to water and to a clean and healthy environment. MCDI also assists communities to use the law to fight against polluters and entities that deny communities their rights to water e.g. communities around Ruiru Dam in the upper Athi River catchment. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkQyOfGKGCE&t=2s