Why it is hard to save the wetlands of Kisii

Gaping holes form part of the plane's topography, scars of the area's main commercial activity: brick making.

Children play with nylon-made football on one side of the marshland, just next to a river with grey waters. Cows are grazing lazily from one corner of the open field to another. 

The nearly 1,000-acre wetland in Nyanturago is near Keroka town, a major boundary of Kisii and Nyamira counties.

The wetland is a major source of water in this area and the larger part of Kisii county.

Over time, however, human activities in the marshland have resulted in massive shrinkage of the resource. Some rivers have dried up and others have waters with grey and brown colours.

"About 10 years ago, there used to be so many birds here, but almost all of them have flown away," says James Nyagaka, chairman of the clan elders in Ibeno location, Nyanturago East.

"There was a lot of fish in this marshland but nowadays, there are hardly any fish." 

Nyagaka says the wetland, which traverses Kisii Central and Gucha subcounties, has been grabbed and encroached by so many people, it's impossible to restore its pristine state.

"Due to the increase in population, it reached a point where the locals started seeing this as idle land," Nyagaka said.

"They soon moved in to make money out of it. That's when they launched brick making, they started planting gum trees and others started crop cultivation." 

A walk down the wetland bears testimony to his words. Forests of eucalyptus trees, tea bushes, maize farms and sugarcane plantations rise deep into the territory.

In between the plantations and farms, deep trenches have been dug to channel excess water out of the 'field' and into a river that passes through the marshland.

Due to the increase in population, it reached a point where the locals started seeing this as idle land. They soon moved in to make money out of it

RAISING THE ALARM

Early this year, the National Environment Complaints Committee (NECC) said the wetland was under threat of completely disappearing due to human activities.

NECC chairman Dr Justry Nyaberi said the body had received many complaints from residents that the rivers were shrinking and others drying out.

The committee in February said it had plans to redeem the wetland from the people who have encroached on it.

However, Nyagaka is not convinced that reclamation of the wetland is going to be an easy task, considering that many people have lived there for ages.

"Many people have been buried there and it will be hard to remove people from the wetlands because most of them call it home," he says.

Instead of ejecting the residents, he said, the government should go and talk to them and reach a mutual agreement that can benefit both the people and protect the wetland.

Nonetheless, he says, due to excessive planting of eucalyptus trees in the wetland, there has been a great decline of water in the springs, particularly the river that passes through the wetland.

The river is a major tributary of River Gucha, the biggest river in Gusii land, emptying into Lake Victoria.

John Momanyi, a resident of Nyanturago, is worried about the government's plan to restore the wetland.

Momanyi, a father and husband, has all of his land in the wetland.  He has been making bricks since he dropped out of secondary school in 2000.

Should the government make true its plan to vacate them from the wetland, he says, other people will be landless and without a livelihood.

“We have nowhere to go. I have no other land. This is the land I was given by my parents. And I'm not alone. We are many people who have homes and farms in this marshland," Momanyi says.

He says most of the youth did not go to school because they had access to a large piece of land. To them, the wetland is their land and a clear route to wealth.

Momanyi says the marshland has helped in curbing crime because it keeps the youth busy in making bricks and planting and tending to their trees.

However, he acknowledged that none of the residents has a title deed. And that brick making poses a great danger to the children, in addition to killing the wetland. 

"When we make bricks, we leave many open holes behind, and when it rains, water fills them. It can be a danger to children, as sometimes a few fall in these pits. But we try to refill the pits sometimes," he says.

SAME FATE

About 30km away from Nyanturago is Etora wetland, which borders the Kisii-Kilgoris highway in Kisii South, otherwise known as Gucha.

The two wetlands, Nyanturago and Etora, are the largest in Kisii county. In total, they cover about 2,000 acres, according to the National Environment Complaints Committee. 

Consequently, they are the most significant wetlands in the county. They are its major sources of rivers and streams.

Directly and indirectly, the more than 1.2 million people in Kisii county bank on them to get water. Some of the main tributaries of River Gucha come out of these wetlands.

Sadly, like its counterpart, Etora wetland is suffering from almost similar challenges and stares at the same depletion. Houses are mushrooming and there is large-scale brick making, crop cultivation and pollution by a Chinese company located next to the wetland.

From the Kisii-Kilgoris highway, one clearly sees the wetland covered with reeds and scattered cows grazing. In places, groups of young men are digging up the ground under the hot sun to mine clean clay soil and make bricks. Healthy looking deep-green maize crops are thriving in some fields, located deep in the wetland. 

Dennis Marube, 24, is supervising a group of six young men who are making bricks near their houses in the wetland.

Marube is the representative of his father at work. Besides watching over his father's workers in "their shamba", he is also tasked with digging and unblocking trenches near their houses to drain water from their compound.

He and his father have been doing this for the last few years, but they are yet to block waters completely from their compound.

About two years ago, his family moved from their initial home on higher ground to reclaim the land in the wetland that he says is theirs. They built houses and rental units.

"Our original land is far away from the river, shopping centre and the highway. That's why we moved and built down here," Marube says.

When they came, the family brought murram and stones to establish a strong foundation for their new home and keep waters at bay. They also raised the ground on which they built houses, for family use and rental purposes.

Nevertheless, the wetland waters have proven hard to eliminate.

"Sometimes floods come to our compound and we move to our other home up the hill. We also dig channels to reduce the impact," he said.

The family built three mud-walled houses. Seven tenants occupy the rental units. The tenants are all of the non-Kisii tribe, and they work in the Stecol Corporation, the Chinese construction company located at one end of the wetland. The tenants pay Sh800 a month for the houses.

"We are looking for more money to build permanent houses. With time, we will also drain all the water from the compound," the firstborn son says.

WATER POLLUTION

Richard Machuka, chairman of the clan elders of the Etora sublocation, says that as much as the locals have been encroaching the wetland, the entry of Stecol Corporation, a Chinese construction company, has dealt the wetland a fatal blow. 

"The company has a site near the wetland. It has septic tanks next to the river that flows through the wetland, and sometimes the tanks overflow into the river. People have been complaining that their livestock get sick after drinking water from the river," Machuka says. 

Peter Wu, the business manager at Stecol Corporation, denied the allegations.

"Our septic tanks are situated about 100m away from the river. They have never overflown to the river or the wetland," Wu said.

Nonetheless, the Chinese official said last year, officers from the Water Resources Authority (WRA) visited the site and advised them to cover their septic tanks with a concrete slab. 

"We have complied with all the requirements from Nema and we have an Environmental Impacts Assessment certificate from Nema," he said.

Nema Kisii county director Leonard Ofula said he would visit the site soon to look into the allegations from the public.

In February, when the NECC officials visited the county to discuss the complaints from the public about the environment, an interim county committee was formed to look into the issues raised, including making efforts to reclaim the two wetlands.

Ofula said the committee that was established is yet to achieve anything because it was not a legal committee.

However, he admitted that wetlands in the county are at risk of dying away. The biggest impediment to Nema's full involvement in the protection of the two wetlands, Ofula said, is the lack of gazettement of the wetlands by the county.

"The county government is the owner of the wetlands. We just come in as a regulator," he said.

"Besides, in Kisii, we don't have any gazetted wetland and that's our biggest problem. Nyanturago was supposed to be gazetted but that has not happened yet. When it is gazetted, then we can comfortably come in." 

The Nema official said currently, the authority is creating awareness through newspapers and radios to educate the public about the importance of protecting wetlands and other natural resources in Kisii county. 

Meanwhile, Thomas Gesengi, the Water Resources Authority coordinator for the Southern Shoreline, said the authority is doing its best to conserve the wetlands.

The Southern Shoreline covers Nyamira, Kisii, Homa Bay, Migori and Narok counties.

Gesengi said, their efforts are being frustrated by a lack of cooperation and financial support from the county and national governments.

"In 2019, we had a programme of cutting gum trees from riparian land. Eucalyptus trees are supposed to be 6 to 30m from the water boundaries, depending on the size of the water body. We did that and we shall keep on doing it," he said.

Concerning Nyanturago and Etora wetlands, Gesengi said they shall move there soon and remove those who have eaten into the wetlands. He was quick to add that they shall follow the procedure and law in doing so.

"We don't care, even if they are 10,000. We shall remove them. But I will follow the procedure," he said.

"I will serve them with orders of seven days to evacuate the areas. I've started with the Kegati wetland, and I work with the Ministry of Interior." 

Kegati wetland is seven acres big. It is the main source of water for the Gusii Water and Sanitation Company (Gwasco), the company that supplies water to the larger Gusii region. River Gucha meanders through the wetland. 

In 2009, Gesengi said, the wetland was encroached by the locals. WRA moved in swiftly and fenced it off.

Two years later, the same people destroyed the fence and encroached on it again. WRA fenced it again, and now the people have encroached on it again.

Gesengi said that to effectively protect the areas, regular efforts are needed, and they require money.

"Sometimes I am forced to fuel the car using my own money. Disbursement of government money delays for up to five months. We need regular visits, sometimes more than seven times, because we need to try all we can to win them before we decide to remove them by force," he said.

He said Kisii and Nyamira county governments have their priorities elsewhere other than protecting wetlands, and that is a major setback in their work.

"About two years ago, there was an outcry from the public about the decline of water in River Nyakomisaro, which passes through Kisii town. A task force was formed, where I was the chairman," he said.

"The governor of Kisii county announced that he'd give us Sh10 million to implement the plan and save the water resources in the county, but the money was not disbursed. The plan we came up with has been rotting in the files since early last year."

He said the same plan was replicated in Nyamira county but like in Kisii county, the county government of Nyamira failed to release funds for the plan's implementation.

The flow of funds from the National Treasury has not been easy, and that has hampered a lot of things, including development.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

Kisii Environment executive Amos Andama denied Gesengi's claims the county government is frustrating the efforts of WRA.

"Government doesn't work on promises. A budget of Sh20 million was allocated for the plan. But a deficit is always there. Priority was on paying salaries so the government can operate," Andama said.

"The flow of funds from the National Treasury has not been easy, and that has hampered a lot of things, including development." 

He called upon the WRA to use the money it collects monthly to implement its plans.

"His office collects a lot of money. The county government pays them Sh500,000 every month," Andama said.

"What have they done with the money to protect the rivers and the wetlands? The WRA has not done anything in the last five years." 

Andama said the government has come up with the Kisii County Climate Change Act, whose aim is to protect the environment and natural resources.

A fund has also been established to provide money to implement the plans.

In addition, there is a County Environment Committee and Steering Committee chaired by the governor, he added.

Andama said the county government had its priorities in matters of environmental conservation.

"We prioritised rivers first. The governor, two years ago, signed an executive order requiring people to remove gum trees from river banks and wetlands. Soon, we are now going to move forcefully and remove those trees and charge them in court."

Concerning gazettement of the wetlands in the county, the executive said that it willl happen, but it will take time.

"Gazettement is a process. In this matter, too, we have  our priority  on forests, and then we'll come to the wetlands."

Andama said the county government will work towards protecting the wetlands, but it will do that while paying attention to other issues as well. 

"We've got to protect those wetlands, but again, we've got to survive. There is a lot that the government has to do in several other sectors."