U-TENA Youth Organization begun as a performing arts group composed of young people who grew up in an urban informal settlement called Mukuru in Nairobi. They had hands-on experience in the myriad of challenges that young people went through in their neighborhood and were resilient enough to overcome them despite the constant setbacks.

They came together and thought of this noble idea of educating the community, specifically young people, about reproductive health and drugs since these two areas had crippled the community. Many young men in Mukuru were addicted to drugs and engaged in violent crimes in the area. Most of them did not celebrate their 20th birthdays as their lives were cut short through mob justice or police brutality.

The girls engaged in unsafe sexual practices leading to an increase in teen pregnancies and consequently high rates of school dropouts, early marriages and early motherhood. This made it difficult to break the cycle of poverty. U-TENA founders thought it wise to create awareness and educate the community using non-lecture methods because from experience, people were tired of sitting in for endless lectures. This created the term ‘Edutainment’ where performing art is used to pass vital information by first entertaining the targeted audience and capturing their attention and then capitalizing on their attention to pass messages to them and also involving them in the whole process