Kenya Groundwater Governance Case Study

This report presents a case study on
groundwater governance in Kenya. The objectives of the study
were to: (a) describe groundwater resource and socioeconomic
settings for four selected aquifers; (b) describe governance
arrangements for groundwater management in Kenya; and (c)
identify the relevance of these arrangements for planning
and implementing climate change mitigation measures. The
report provides a comprehensive strategy to develop
effective groundwater management and a pilot groundwater
management plan. Kenya's draft Policy for the
Protection of Groundwater provides most of the requirements
for improving groundwater governance, including
participation and empowerment of groundwater users,
decentralization of management to local level, integration
of surface and groundwater management, improving monitoring
and data collection, identifying sites for managed aquifer
recharge (MAR), mapping strategic aquifers and conjunctive
use opportunities, and identifying groundwater conservation
areas. Groundwater management decision making is
sector-based and on the whole ad hoc; there is no mechanism
for coordination and for fostering cross-sector linkages.
Consequently, the management of groundwater resources has
continued to be carried on in isolation from the management
of land and other land-based resources, with the inevitable
consequence that the implications of management decisions in
critical areas such as physical are planning, land use
planning, and agricultural activities have often been
overlooked. At the same time, groundwater decision making
remains overly centralized, with limited real involvement of
stakeholder units, such as catchment area advisory
committees (CAACs) and water resources user associations (WRUAs).