In association with Abdalla Tairara, Thuku helped found the Young Kikuyu Association, the first organisation to defend African interests in colonial Kenya. The Young Kikuyu Association was a non-militant group that pursued a peaceful and structured liberation struggle with the government and missions. Its main concern was for the preservation of African-owned land. Thuku argued that land was an important factor of production and that the livelihood of the Kikuyu people, who are primarily farmers, risked being lost. His message reverberated strongly not only within his immediate Kikuyu tribe but also with other farming communities in Kenya and Africa. From 1920 to 1921 Thuku served as the secretary to the Kikuyu Association. However, he was more interested in action-oriented measures to address the rising economic challenges facing Kenyan Africans, realizing that the organisation was becoming heavily political and thus ill-equipped to achieve the association's original objectives of economic emancipation. In 1921, he stepped down from his position at the Kikuyu Association.