Young and roasting: How John Kamau is bringing Kenyan coffee back to its roots

In Kenya’s coffee-growing regions, many farmers spend years tending their crops without ever tasting the final product. For John Kamau, that gap became a question he could not ignore.

At 27, he is part of a new generation stepping into agriculture differently. Not only as producers, but as processors, roasters and connectors across the value chain.

Kamau grew up around coffee estates in Juja, where his father worked. Coffee was part of daily life, but what stayed with him was curiosity.

“I remember asking my father so many questions,” he says. “I wanted to understand how coffee moves from the farm to the final cup.”

“I wanted to understand how coffee moves from the farm to the final cup.”

That curiosity shaped his path. He studied agribusiness at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, trained as a barista and later as a roaster, and gained hands-on experience abroad. With each step, his focus sharpened.

“The more I learned, the more I thought about the farmer,” he explains. “The value of coffee changes so much after processing. I started asking how that value can stay closer to them.”

This thinking led to Jungle Harvest Coffee Roasters, his enterprise focused on value addition. Kamau sources green beans directly from farmers, roasts and packages the coffee, and brings the final product closer to where it begins.

For some farmers, it is their first time tasting their own coffee.

“When they taste it, it changes how they see their work,” he says.

He is also intentional about who he works with. Many of his suppliers are youth and women-led groups, often overlooked within the sector.

“It is not only young people who need support,” he adds. “Women are doing a lot of work in coffee. Buying from them is one way of strengthening their position.”

The journey has had its challenges. Access to machinery remains limited, and certification processes take time. Even so, he has continued to grow, securing a roasting licence and expanding his operations step by step.

His approach has drawn recognition, including through a UN-supported coffee innovation challenge focused on sustainability. But for Kamau, the goal remains simple.

He wants more Kenyans to drink Kenyan coffee. He wants farmers to better understand the value of what they produce. And he wants more young people to see that there is space for them in the sector.

“You can start small and grow,” he says. “There is space in this industry. What matters is finding where you fit and building from there.”

His work points to a shift that is already underway. One where value stays closer to the source, and where young people are not leaving agriculture, but reshaping it from within.

Story first published at https://kilimonews.co.ke/agribusiness/young-and-roasting-john-kamau-leads-the-youth-in-coffee-value-addition/