KENYA MOJA

  The Government has placed forest restoration at the centre of Kenya’s climate resilience and water security agenda, recognising that healthy catchments are the foundation upon which irrigation, food production and community livelihoods depend. This reality came into sharp focus during a consultative engagement led by Irrigation PS Ephantus Kimotho with the Oloolua Forest Community Forest Association and a wide range of stakeholders, aimed at restoring the Ngong Forest landscape under the 15 Billion Tree Growing Initiative. The engagement brought together more than 20 forest user groups drawn from communities living around the Oloolua, Ngong Hills and Kibiko forest blocks. What made this meeting significant was not just the numbers, but the shared understanding that forest restoration is no longer a peripheral environmental issue. It is a core economic and social priority, directly linked to water availability, climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods. Forests as the Back...

  THE GOVERNMENT has reached a moment in Kenya’s irrigation journey where infrastructure alone is no longer the main constraint. Dams, canals, pumps and conveyance systems remain important, but the real question now is how water is governed, allocated, priced, monitored and sustained over time. This is where irrigation success will either be secured or quietly undermined. In this context, the growing role of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is not peripheral. It is central to whether Kenya’s irrigation expansion delivers lasting value. Kenya’s irrigation ambition is clear. Through the National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan and the Presidential Irrigation Expansion agenda , the country is deliberately shifting away from overdependence on rain-fed agriculture. What is less visible, but equally critical, is the governance machinery that must support this expansion. Without strong institutions, reliable data, fair water allocation rules and cost recovery mech...

  Irrigation in Kenya has always occupied a strange space in public policy. It is constantly spoken about, frequently promised, and endlessly cited as the solution to food insecurity . Yet for decades, it remained marginal in actual investment outcomes, fragmented in governance, and slow in delivery.  Understanding why requires moving beyond canals, dams, and acreage figures , and examining irrigation through the lens of political economy . Who decides what gets built, where money flows, how risks are shared, and who ultimately benefits. At its core, irrigation is not just a technical intervention. It is an economic choice, a political negotiation, and a governance challenge rolled into one. That is why progress in irrigation has historically lagged behind its strategic importance, even as Kenya’s population grew, climate risks intensified, and dependence on rain-fed agriculture became increasingly untenable. Why Irrigation Has Always Been Politically Attractive but Practic...

  Kenya’s ambition to transform agriculture and secure national food supplies is no longer a matter of theory but a matter of urgent policy action. With food production increasingly constrained by climate variability , erratic rainfall , and rising demand, the country is pushing to expand irrigated agriculture and modernise its water management systems . But as the State Department for Irrigation leads this push, the question arises not just how much more land can be irrigated, but how much water is optimised and used effectively. This is the core of the next irrigation frontier: the balance between expanding land under irrigation and ensuring that every drop of water delivers maximum productive value. Expanding Irrigated Land: Ambition Meets Reality Kenya’s National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP) provides the framework for long-term growth in irrigation. The plan seeks to bring an additional one million acres under irrigation by 2030, building on about 747,000 acr...

The debate on irrigation in Kenya often gravitates toward scale. Big dams, vast canals, and thousands of acres under command sound impressive and, in many cases, are necessary. Yet food security is not only a function of size. It is shaped by how quickly water reaches crops, how efficiently it is used, and how closely production decisions reflect the realities of farmers on the ground. In this context, farmer-led irrigation deserves far more attention than it usually receives, not as a replacement for large schemes, but as a powerful engine of food production that works quietly, consistently, and at speed. Across the country, thousands of smallholder farmers are already irrigating their land using water pans , shallow wells , boreholes , river abstractions , and small pumps . These systems rarely make headlines, yet collectively they contribute a substantial share of vegetables, cereals, fodder , and horticultural produce that feeds urban and rural markets every day. Their streng...

  As the new year begins in 2026, I found myself thinking about you. Not just as a Principal Secretary dealing with government systems and paperwork, but as a man deeply focused on water, how it moves, how it is stored, and how it gives life and hope. Most people look at a map of Kenya and see borders and regions. I imagine that when you look at the same map, you see water paths, where it flows freely, where it is blocked, and where the land is still dry and waiting. At the start of this new year, I wanted to write to you directly, to acknowledge the quiet, demanding, and important work you have been carrying over the past few years. The Weight of the Quiet Revolution There is a special kind of pressure that comes with being responsible for a country’s food supply. It is not the loud pressure of politics. It is the quiet, constant knowledge that when a pump fails in Mwea or a canal fills with silt in Turkana , a family somewhere eats a little less. You have carried that responsib...