Kajiado County government has launched a public participatory process
of coming up with water policy for the county. The policy is intended
to stipulate the best ways of management and proper utilization of water
resource in Kajiado County. County cabinet secretary in charge of
ministry of water, Mrs. Nancy Gathaiya said the policy aims at ensuring
implementation of public views and regulate the usage of water by the
relevant stakeholders within county.
The process that involves public participation through consultative
opinion seeking from the citizens of the County is ongoing throughout
the five sub counties. The citizens are given the opportunity to
articulate the challenges they face on accessibility and usage of water
in their regions and eventually come up with their recommendations. Mrs.
Nancy Gathaiya said since some residents of Kajiado County are nomadic
pastoralists, the water policy will help in ensuring they get water to
sustain their activities.
According to Mrs. Gathaiya the policy is intended to outline a frame
work on the responsibilities of the stakeholders (The county government,
water suppliers and users). The policy draft will be availed to the
public through a county consultative meeting for the final amendments to
be done before it is taken to the county assembly. The county
government is working closely with Kenya Water partnership to ensure the
policy meets the required standards on water policy formulation. The
executive secretary of Kenya Water partnership, Mr. Richard Mutua said
they are working with the county to ensure the policy is aligned to the
four international principles of water. He said the ongoing process is
important since it will enable the county government to come up with a
comprehensive policy that will take into account the needs of the
residents of Kajiado County.
Mrs. Gathaiya said they are working on modalities to ensure the
growing Kajiado County population gets clean, safe and sufficient water.
She added that apart from getting water from Kiserian dam, they working
round the clock to ensure they also get water from Ndakaini dam.
The policy making process is ongoing throughout the 47 counties and
this comes at a time when the water bill has already gone through the
second reading in the national assembly. The water policies from
different counties will be harmonized with the water bill to ensure they
do not conflict each other.
