Kisumu city is forging a new model for bringing its most vulnerable young people home.

At a stakeholder engagement this week, an unusual mix of people sat in the same room.

A magistrate beside matatu owners. Health officials next to religious leaders. And at the center of it all, young people who had once lived on the streets spoke not as guests, but as partners.

The occasion was convened by Undugu Society of Kenya on the Social Reintegration Framework, a plan built around what organizers call the 4Rs: Rescue, Rehabilitation, Reintegration and Resocialization.

The goal is simple to state and hard to deliver, giving children, youth and adults with lived experience of street connectedness a safe, dignified, and lasting way back into family and community life.

Hon Mikoyan, Chief Magistrate of Kisumu Law Courts, attended as Chief Guest, signaling a stronger link between the courts and reintegration efforts going forward.

The County’s Youth and Sports Department urged partners to stop supporting the framework “from the sidelines” and take it up fully.

Perhaps the sharpest message came from the youth themselves. Kimberly Innocent, a member of the Youth Advisory Council, reminded the room that young people are “right holders and active partners,” not passive beneficiaries.

With justice actors, government departments, civil society, and community leaders all at the table, Kisumu is signaling that reintegration will only work as a coordinated, community-driven effort, one where every partner now carries a piece of the follow-through.