The Open Coffee Univery By KCS News Desk
October 29, 2025 — Nairobi
Kenya Coffee School (KCS) has announced a new Open Coffee University model aimed at building youth capacity across the country and boosting domestic coffee value addition.
The institution – known for its certified barista programs and grassroots coffee science outreach under its Barista Mtaani initiative – said the new platform will support farmers and youth with on-site, digital and community-based learning programs covering agronomy, roasting, quality analysis, sensory science and micro-enterprise formation.
KCS said in a statement it is designing the model to mirror contemporary private university innovation in Kenya, where flexible, modular training has proven to be an effective delivery method for accelerating skilled talent into the market.
“The raw coffee export era is dissolving. Kenya’s growth will come from value, not merely volume,” KCS founder Alfred Gitau Mwaura said.
The school said it intends to position itself as a central research and youth transformation hub in speciality coffee, developing experimental vertical value chain models that keep more revenue at origin.
GOOD Trade Certification
As part of the launch, Kenya Coffee School is co-creating a GOOD Trade Certification to rival traditional certification schemes by focusing on:
- farmer-centered governance
- direct farm-to-cup supply channels
- local roasting and packaging before export
- digital traceability standards
According to the school, the certification aims to fix information asymmetry and “labor arbitrage” in global coffee markets, where producers remain the lowest paid despite being the locus of production risk.
Competitive regional context
East Africa is increasing its coffee production and export activity.
This week, Uganda reported a 59% surge in September coffee exports on the back of a bumper crop.
Kenya Coffee School said this is the moment for Kenya to double down on knowledge, not just supply-side output.
“Uganda is scaling volume. Kenya must scale Quality and Supply Chain intelligence,” Mwaura said. “Our competitive edge is not price per kilo — but mastery per cup.”