Lack of clear boundaries continues to expose Kenya's water towers to encroachers, exposing them to continued destruction, an audit report says.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu makes the observation in her report, which covers July 2017 to December 2022.
The report looks at the conservation of the country’s water towers.
“Due to insufficient reclamation, the Mau Forest Complex and other water towers continue to experience encroachment challenges, leading to their degradation,” Gathungu says.
The auditor says the Kenya Water Towers Agency is yet to undertake a comprehensive survey and mapping of Kenya’s 18 gazetted water towers.
The major five towers include Mount Kenya, the Aberdare Ranges, the Mau Forest Complex, Cherangani Hills, and Mount Elgon.
“This was with the exception of the Maasai Mau block within the Mau Forest Complex, where the agency oversaw the mapping and realignment of 60 kilometers out of its 119-kilometer boundary. Further, according to the Maasai Mau Phase II Action Plan, the agency targeted constructing an electric smart fence along the Maasai Mau Block, covering the entire 119 km boundary within two (2) years, starting in August 2019. However, only 30km of the fence had been constructed as of the time of the audit in 2022,” the report says.
The audit focused on the Kenya Water Towers Agency’s activities aimed at conserving the country’s water towers.
The activities examined included water tower protection, rehabilitation, alternative community livelihood, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring of conservation activities.
It focused on 18 gazetted water towers.
However, nine water towers, comprising three major and six minor, were sampled for the purpose of the audit.
For the purpose of examining interventions on reclamation of encroached water towers, the Mau Forest Complex was selected as a case study.
The sampled main water towers included Aberdare Ranges, Cherangani Hills, and Mau Forest Complex, while the minor ones included Chyulu, Kirisia, Loita, Nyambene, Mt. Marsabit, and Shimba Hills.
Gathungu says the agency, in its 2016–2020 strategic plan, had planned to identify, map, and gazette critical water catchment areas.
However, the audit reveals that the agency had identified critical water catchments in only nine water towers.
The gazetted water towers were Loita Hills, Nyambene Hills, and Maasai Mau blocks in the Mau Forest Complex.
The non-gazetted towers were Endau Hills, Elgeyo Hills, Kavonge-Museve, Mbooni Hills, and Makuli-Nzaui.
“Good practice requires that the agency prioritize gazetted water towers when planning and implementing tower conservation activities. For instance, except for Maasai Mau Block, critical water catchments were yet to be identified and assessed in major water towers such as the Mt. Kenya Aberdare Ranges, Cherangani Hills, Mt. Elgon, and the entire Mau Forest Complex,” the report says.
Gathungu says that while gazettement is a necessary pre-condition for protection, none of the identified critical catchment land had been surveyed and gazetted as of the time of the audit.
The auditor says the joint enforcement unit that had been established to provide a multi-agency approach to protection of the Mau Forest Complex did not seem to be effective in deterring deforestation activities.
"A review of JEU's {joint enforcement unit's monthly reports revealed that approximately 69,085 cedar posts and 5,000 bags of charcoal were seized by JEU officers during the period from January 2017 to December 2022. However, no reports were available for a period of nineteen (19) months spread over four (4) out of the six years under review. The actual destruction may therefore be higher than the figures presented in this report,” the audit.
The audit says that due to inadequate implementation of protection measures, water towers were exposed to destructive human activities, leading to degradation.
Gathungu reveals that there is declining forest cover in Cherangani, Chyulu, Loita water towers, and Maasai Mau, South Mau, and South West Mau blocks.
She reviewed land use and land cover data since 1990 for the nine water towers sampled.
Gathungu says the Aberdare ranges, Cherangani, Loita Hills, Mt. Marsabit water towers, and South Mau block had an increased trend in crop land, depicting encroachment.
The report says the agency failed to provide information on the total area reclaimed during a reclamation exercise as well as the targeted locations in Mau Forest Complex from 2008.
“This was with the exception of the 4,500 hectares (ha) in the Nkoben area and 8,869 ha in the “Status Quo” area of the Maasai Mau Block recovered in 2018 and 2019, respectively.”
It adds: “While some of the encroachers had land ownership documents, the agency did not provide evidence to confirm the revocation of such documents. The audit therefore could not ascertain whether the reclamation process was completed and encroached land reverted back to the forest reserves.”
