Amid harsh economic times: Kenyan business celebrates 5th anniversary

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

- ETHSafari, a Kenyan blockchain gathering born from a desire to tell Africa's Web3 story, is celebrating five years of operation

- The 2026 edition runs from September 4 to 13 under the theme 'The Fifth Safari,' featuring a hackathon, workshops and a train journey through Tsavo

- The event has drawn backing from over 20 global organisations including Visa, Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase and Polkadot over its five-year run

ETHSafari, a Kenyan-based blockchain event that set out to place Africa at the centre of the global Web3 conversation, is marking its fifth year of operation with a multi-city edition scheduled to run from September 4 to 13 2026.

The event was founded after a group of African Web3 community leaders attending international conferences repeatedly encountered the same question from global audiences: what is happening in Africa?

Convinced that the continent's blockchain story needed to be told by Africans themselves, they established ETHSafari as a platform to do exactly that.

What is ETHSafari?

The name draws from the Swahili word for journey, and the event is structured accordingly.

It opens in Nairobi, Kenya's principal technology hub, where developers, founders and community members participate in the ETHSafari Hackathon alongside workshops and networking sessions.

The hackathon offers participants the chance to develop solutions, receive mentorship and compete for prizes.

From Nairobi, attendees board the BlockTrain, travelling along Kenya's Standard Gauge Railway through Tsavo National Park. The journey is designed to encourage informal conversations and partnerships outside the constraints of a conventional conference environment.

The event concludes in Kilifi on Kenya's coast, where the main conference brings together builders, investors, researchers, creators and blockchain communities from across Africa and beyond.

"The 2026 edition will feature the ETHSafari Hackathon, workshops, networking events, the BlockTrain journey and the main conference in Kilifi," the organisers told TUKO.co.ke.

How has ETHSafari evolved?

Since its first edition, ETHSafari has developed into one of Africa's prominent blockchain gatherings, drawing support from more than 20 global organisations.

Backers have included Visa, the Ethereum Foundation, DFINITY Foundation, Brave Browser, Polkadot, Celo, Optimism, Coinbase, Filecoin Foundation, Algorand Foundation, NEAR Protocol, StarkWare, Base, EMURGO Africa, World, NoOnes, Lisk, Unstoppable Domains, Adaverse and ETHGlobal.

The 2026 edition carries the theme "The Fifth Safari" and will retain the full programme format: the Nairobi hackathon, workshops, networking events, the BlockTrain leg and the Kilifi main conference.

Organisers have described the event's mission as unchanged from its origins: to connect African blockchain builders with global counterparts and ensure that the continent's contributions to the industry are visible, audible and shaped by those doing the work.

Source: TUKO.co.ke

Reporting originally appeared via TUKO. Read the full source for additional context.