History of Water Supply and Governance in Kenya (1895-2005) Lessons and Futures

Contents

FOREWORD iers ciini rasa a a a ea a sande aae a ee aa 9 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMETS éisssiessececcecstanccacasceccasacanctesascnccesaranccesascncsanarenes 11 ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS wissscescevessissnseveassnets cas snaescct nate ccusnaeseaecnatecatesees cates 16 DEFINITION VOE TERMS sieves sees vce cdecctascveascnscteceiis concen erresira nisrani i asiria 19 CHAPTER ONE wisetevacitssctevens faves cevcsnandin Sacecetecatanctaceuandeveatendeacecaeedesacenececauencusennendeecseds 21 LO ItFODUCHION is ccies vives sss dev teeiietek Gand avi Attn EEE aaa EEEE E E EREE RN 21 1:1 Physical Conditions sssrinin tar arar arera iiae raver terete 24 aR ronel] eie Mists E T E cece E E E O E A T E OE 28 CHAPTER TWO irssi dnan a aa aa a E E aaa 31 2.1 General OVErVICW: acina na a Sea iheasseeatisl Maat saves asdes 31 2.5 Independent Kenya, Water under Ministry of Agriculture (1963-1974)... 42 CHAPTER THREE setaun nea a a a ea aa e a ateodecn ant 66 3:1:5 Pans-and DAMS svecesivsscccvsyarsccesnesdccvsnecndedisensessuncansstenesacartvasnsadevurdennes 72 SA OE O E A E E E 80 3:22 Water CANO ereenn e e a e a aee 81 3:2:3 PUMPING SYStEIN ...csnesceccendascssanetsencenssnsacansbcecsendsncasanwbdentanssncacenseseasas 83

4.1 Socio-Economic Development

CHAPTER FIVE iirinn suvteves ccs cctvscsscecnwcteevees oN r E EEr aE EEEE EEE EEA rE NARESE

Foreword

Kenya has endorsed the principles and goals set at major international water declarations. The historic background of Kenya’s water sector is multifaceted and long-standing. In this “History of Water Supply and Governance in Kenya (1895- 2005) ” Professor Ezekiel Nyangeri Nyanchaga covers the topic comprehensively and in a most interesting way. The background information is based on his extensive review of several studies and archived documents as well as long-time observations of numerous project operations. As a result, this historic information of the water sector is complete and useful; it was already long overdue.

The development of the water sector in Kenya dates back to the institutions established in the colonial era in the late 1890s. After independence in 1963, the new Kenyan government created ambitious development programs under the newly established sectoral ministries. Later on, these programs received further technical and financial support from external development aid agencies such as the World Bank, WHO, UNICEF and a large number of bilateral organizations.

This book traces back the legal, policy and institutional development over time from the initial customary water institutions to the year 2005. It addresses various stages of institutional development as well as a large number of water sector projects extensively and in detail. In a unique revelation, this book observes that privatisation, commercialisation, asset development, asset ownership, the operator and other modern concepts are just new words used to refer to old ideas.

These create an environment for innovation and the presence of the great variety of water resources. It explores the evolution of water supply in both urban and rural areas uncovering the first water supply, currently in use, and use of hand dung wells and protected springs by various rural communities. This book provides an interesting description of these schemes and experiences from their operations that will immensely benefit sector professionals, students and policy makers.

This book also discusses the current situation analysing key achievements so far in water supply coverage, operation and financing. On this basis an assessment of the overall sustainability is attempted. Further, some relevant key indicators of achievements are reviewed. Despite the rapid population growth in Kenya, the sector has been able to cope with the increasing demand for water services reasonably well to ensure that the portion of population served has steadily increased, even though the work must continue.

This book discusses widely about drivers of water supply and presents challenges and vision for the future. As such this book is an interesting presentation of lessons from history that are invaluable for the development of future strategies of the sector. Kenya being a central country in Eastern Africa has important international visibility, thus findings arising from this book have applicability in many other countries as well. While some of the lessons may be Kenya specific, many are likely to be useful for other developing countries and least developed countries as well.

I highly recommend this book for the sector institutions and development partners. It should be equally beneficial globally for those who seek to glean long-term experiences and other relevant information of water sector development and operations.

Tauno K. Skyttä Principal Evaluation Officer, The World Bank (rtd)

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Why water services

Indeed, there has been a bias to piped water supply where the source was accessible and therefore water was taken closer to the people who were near the sources, whereas those several kilometres away from the source were neglected probably due to cost implications. Being agriculture fed economy, presence or absence of water dictates the prosperity of the whole nation, there is an ultimate need to bridge the supply to the areas with scarcity for any meaningful development to be achieved in the Kenya.

Writing about water stemmed from deeply rooted enthusiasm and excitement to demystify the obscurity of water supply in Kenya. Every new finding brought about satisfaction and the desire to go on. However, with time, the information became too much and this came with the need to create an order and build more understanding. The passion became more intense and research assistants were put in and more data was gathered and analysed bringing in more insights as well as complexities, gaps and structural challenges. At this point it became inevitable to turn the events that made Kenya water development into a book.

In seven chapters, this book makes a critical look at the one century of development of water sector from the inception of first water supply in Kenya until the year 2005. Significant issues such as infrastructure, institutional development, water conflict, water policy and legislation and sustainability are discussed and elaborated. The chapters include the introduction, administration and management of water supplies, development and management, drivers of water supply and the futures of water supply.

Why Kenya

The history of Kenya as a nation, when compared to the international timelines, is such young that before 1895, the present Kenya was vast land of boundless and sedentary pastoral and semi agricultural economies. According to the Water Poverty Index, Kenya ranks among the thirty countries with highest water poverty level at 47.3, in the world, this makes water invaluable in Kenya. Inopportunely, the quality of Kenya’s water resources faces serious threats from pollution, siltation, reclamation, pesticides, weed attack, and human population activities. Water is life, it is said, there is nowhere it is aptly demonstrated than in Kenya where the population has concentrated in areas with water sources, while in vast semi-arid areas, the population is very sparse and has most often been neglected.

Distinctively, the political and administrative portfolio for water and sanitation development has constantly changed over the years owing to relative significance the various political regimes attached to water and sanitation. The politics of the day determines the amount and nature of supply. Notwithstanding, the growth in population and urbanisation, need for proper sanitation, socio-economic development, changing management practices and globalisation have been influential in the water development trend.

In a unique set of circumstances, Kenya has had water supply from water condensing plant, rain water harvesting, wells, boreholes, pans and dams, springs, streams and rivers and piped supply. By the year 2005, apart from water condensing plant, all these remained the sources of water supply in Kenya as was in 1900s. The conveyance methods include furrows, water carriers, pumping system and kiosk system. Paradoxically, while water development followed the path of settlement, settlement too followed the path of water development as more townships sprung along the railway and water supply points.

The debate about economic good and social good about water is a critical one in understanding the water sector development. The irony of the poor paying more for water than the rich is as glaring as the empty taps that are billed and the huge amount of unaccounted for water. This book explores the complex water tariff system, the origin, progression, policy and success. Interestingly people outside the urban setup hardly pays for water and obtain water from the natural sources. This timeline details where Kenya water sector is, how it got there, predicts for how long it will be there and why.

Along the years, as the author observes, the water sector has circumvented the solution of water supply as formation of water companies to manage the water assets. The recommendation for increased private water participation is but a reflection of the past whereby ideas are re-digested. Muthaiga Water Company was in operation by 1923 and its major aim was to supply water for the residents of the Muthaiga and upper Nairobi Township estates. The water companies in the reforms agenda serve a specific geographic area.

Change of technology, there appears to be a cyclic use of technology over the years; this is demonstrated by use of reverting to technologies that were in use in between 1900s along 1920. The aspect of rain water harvesting as a main water supply was by 2005 recommended as the major way to solve the endemic water problems

A major drawback in development of Kenya water sector, the history demonstrates is the time span between the realisation of the problem through an enquiry and the implementation. In some instances, decisions and recommendations have taken thirty years to implement. The review of Water Act 372 which was recommended in 1972 and implementation in 2002 is an example. This time lapse has resulted into wastage of resources when redoing the studies to establish similar initial findings which are still applicable

In the efforts to find the most sufficient, capable and dependable water undertaker, water supply docket including assets changed ownership through different departments in the process dabbed hand-over. The Railways under the Public Works Department was the first and handed over to the municipalities, the municipalities that found it difficult to manage water supplies handed over to Water Development Department in the then Ministry of Agriculture and later on Ministry of Water Development. The municipalities and the ministry were unable to effectively handle water and water companies took over the management on behalf.

The author regrets that in spite of the inherent water resource limitations and the high degree of dependence of its economy and social wellbeing on water, Kenya has not adequately invested in infrastructures such as dams, pans, boreholes, pipelines and rainwater harvesting for many years. The weaknesses in the current institutional framework include poor organisational structures, lack of autonomy, and unclear definition of roles and responsibilities. There has been poor coordination between sector institutions leading to wastage of resources and duplication of efforts, lack of adequate skills to manage and operate water supplies.

By the year 2005, the situation of water and sanitation services in Kenya was far from satisfactory. Service coverage and service level was inadequate both in urban and rural areas. Performance of existing water supply systems was poor. However, as a major effort, the water sector reform process started to reorganise the sector in order to achieve the development targets.

Why of my interest

The growth of Kenya water sector has been phenomenal in the last one century. It is an evolution from the earliest water supply in Nairobi sourced from a small concrete dam within the Chiromo Estate and piped by gravitation towards the railway land in 1899 to over 1500 water supply systems managed by various agencies by the year 2005. Most of the water in the start of the century was owned by the Uganda Railways for the purposes of its workers and for the locomotives. This is a transition from ‘people going for water’ to ‘water going to the people’. The history of water supply in Kenya shows that for the last 100 years since the first water supply in Nairobi, institutional arrangements are still the core operational problem in the provision of water services due to centralized and bureaucratic practices.

The actual construction of the railway started in Mombasa in 1896 to reach Nairobi in 1899 and later to Port Victoria, present day Kisumu City, in 1901. The first piped water supplies were developed and managed by the Railway to serve towns such as Mombasa, Nairobi, Naivasha, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret and Kitale. The government of East African Protectorate occupied the northern frontier district in 1908. In these areas, methods most reliable in 1900 such excavating river beds after heavy rains, collection from various surface rivers, springs and sparsely distributed water holes are still the most applicable and most commonly used to date. The unique water supply scenario is appreciable through four distinctive chronological categories: pre-colonial (1895-1920), Colony and Protectorate (1920-1963), Independence (1963-1980) and Post-Independence (1980-2000) each category with unique challenges, priorities and response and policies.

The pre-colonial period highlights the period before a single piped water supply in Kenya, the development of railways, emergence of townships, development of water supplies and efforts to develop the first water law. The Colony and Protectorate period is marked by development of the first water law, handing over of water ownership to more competent institutions, expansion of water supplies to other sprouting townships, and development of rural water supplies. The independence and post-independence period marked a major shift in development of water supplies; bilateral assistance came in during this period, fully fledged ministry of water was created, a new water law and national water policy were established, and a comparative approach along the international standards was adopted.

The process

This handbook has gone through various stages, from the appreciation of the idea that water development study is a crucial part of our existence to the actual production of the book. An extensive research was carried out to establish the timeline and more so to patch out the gaping holes in this historical review. Public as well as private sources were consulted in provision of data. Such institutions as the Kenya National Archives, Kenya Railways Library, Ministry of Water Development library, Rhodes House in Oxford UK-the colonial archives materials and British Institute in Eastern Africa library. The data collected was used to develop a database of water supply. A systematic and painstaking process analysed data and developed a timeline, then identified gaps and filled them up through a repeat process. During the analysis, data was classified and interpreted to build up relationships of events and issues that took place between 1895 and 2005.

As the work on this study progressed, the author undertook conscious efforts to disseminate discuss and share new and critical patterns, insights and critiques about the subject. Dissemination was achieved through presentation papers in international conferences, local and regional workshops and publications in peer refereed journals. More dissemination was done through chapters in scholarly books.

Limitation

Looking back at the magnitude of physical secondary material collected through bulks of colonial files copies, cutting and the tiring physical process, every researcher will acknowledge the limitations encountered. Retrieval of archival materials based on the complex filing and retrieval systems coupled with dust from the old non used files called for physical strength and care, delay in retrieval of the requested documents, and illegibility of the old documents were the major setbacks. Worth of note is the immense financial obligations that this study demanded to fulfil individual interests to write this book.

Special thanks

Given the technical and complex nature of this study, a multidimensional approach was necessary. To this end, contributions and insights from scholars in social economics and engineering were sought. I was honoured with immense contributions from Brian Shikholi, Isaiah Omosa, Moses Mwangi, Tauno K Skytta and Petri Juuti. I wish to acknowledge special contributions from Allan G Muruga, the core research assistant from the start to the publishing of this book and Prof Tapio SW Katko from University of Tampere Finland, for well-informed insights, criticism and comparative guidelines on the theme. I wish to acknowledge the immense support from the Academy of Finland (no. 288153) in ensuring the success of the entire manuscript.

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AC Asbestos Cement

ACA Athi Catchment Area

ADC Assistant District Commissioner or African District Council AID American International Development ALDEV African Land Development Board

ASAL Arid and Semi-Arid Land

BEAP British East Africa Protectorate

CDA Coast Development Authority

CDAs Community Development Assistants

CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CMS Church Missionary Society

CO Colonial Office

CWB Central Water Board

CWPs Communal water points

DACs District Agricultural Water Committees DARA Development and Reconstruction Authority DG District Commissioner

DCU Dam Construction Unit

DDA Demand-driven Approach

DDC District Development Committee

DHO District Health Officer

DI Ductile Iron

DWD Director of Water Development

DPW Director of Public Works

EARC East African Railways Corporation ENNCA Ewaso Ng iro North Catchment Area

EPZ Export Processing Zone

FINNIDA Finnish International Development Agency CWSMP Community Water Supply Management Program GI Galvanised Iron

GoK Government of Kenya

GRSSA Garissa

GTZ GWP HB IBEAC ITCZ IBRD IWRM JICA KEFINCO FWWSP KNA KUESP KWASP LGLA LVNCA LVSCA MoA MoLG MLRR&WD MENR MUWSP MoNR MoW NMGS NEAP NFD NWCPC NWMP O&M PDoA PAWCs PWD RNAS RDWSSP RVCA Rs

SAPs SCSU

Germany Agency for Technical Corporation

Global Water Partnership

Hydraulic Branch

Imperial British East Africa Company

Inter Tropical Convergence Zone

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Integrated Water Resources Management

Japan International Corporation Agency

Kenya Finland Company

Kenya-Finland Western Water Supply Program

Kenya National Archives

Kibera Urban Water Environment and Sanitation Kwale Water and Sanitation Project

Local Government Loans Authority

Lake Victoria North Catchment area

Lake Victoria South Catchment Area

Ministry of Agriculture

Ministry of Local Government

Ministry of Land Reclamation, Regional and Water Development Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources

Minor Urban Water Supply Programme

Ministry of Natural Resources

Ministry of Works

Nairobi Metropolitan Growth Strategy

National Environment Action Plan

Northern Frontier District

National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation National Water Master Plan

Operation and Maintenance

Provincial Director of Agriculture

Provincial Agricultural Water Committees

Public Works Department

RN Aerodrome Services

Rural Domestic Water Supply and Sanitation Programme Rift Valley Catchment Area

Rupees

Structural Adjustment Programmes

Soil and Water Conservation Service Unit

SDA Supply-driven Approach

SIDA Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency SSiPs Small Scale Independent Providers TARDA Tana River Development Authority

TCA Tana Catchment Area

uPVC Polyvinyl Chloride

VLOM Village Level Operation and Maintenance WSBs Water Services Boards

WRAP Water Resource Assessment Project WASREB Water Services Regulatory Board

WSUD Water Sensitive Urban Design

WSD Water and Sanitation Departments WHO World Health Organisation

WRA Water Resources Authority

WSS Water Supply and Sanitation

WSRS Water Sector Reform Secretariat

WUASP Water Users Support Programme

UDD Urban Development Department

UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UWASAM Urban Water and Sanitation Management

Boma

Debe

Rupee

Baraza

Duka

DEFINITION OF TERMS

The residence of government workers, this is where the administrators, medical officers, and other government officials lived. In some cases, it was built within a township.

an approximately twenty litre container used to fetch, carry or store water

Indian currency used as formal currency in Kenya and Uganda in 1905; it was abolished after Kenya became a crown colony in 1920. One rupee was estimated to be equivalent to two Kenya shillings

A meeting, usually at local level within a location or sub location for example, chief’s baraza

A building within township where sales and purchases takes place, this includes water kiosks

Kenyan pound The term was used to refer to an equivalent of 20 Kenya shillings be-

Harambee

Askari

Native fore 1970s

A word describing the occasion of pulling together particularly resources and is used commonly to define a meeting to raise funds a police or a guard

Locals, indigenous people, Africans in most cases used derogatively to refer to uneducated African

Significant personalities in the history

Williams GB George Bransby William carried out the first comprehensive water and sanitation study of Nairobi and Kenya in general in 1907.

Lord Delamere 3"! baron Delamere KCMG born in April 1870, was one of the most influential British Settlers in Kenya

Dr. Sikes The Director of Public Works Department who commissioned to investigate the water law after the first World War

Dr. Classen Dr. Classen investigated the water supply system in Garissa and designed a development plan and developed The Classen Report

Dr. Kathnack A water expert from South Africa invited to carry out water augmentation for Nairobi during the World War II

Units of measures

Gallon an equivalent of 4.546 litres Mile an equivalent of 1.609 kilometres Foot an equivalent of 0.304 metres Cubic foot an equivalent of 28.31 litres

Inch an equivalent of 0.24 centimetres Cusec a unit of flow equal to one cubic feet per second Units

Kms Kilometres

Km? Kilometre square

M? Cubic metres

Mm? Million cubic metres

gpd Gallons per day

kms Kilometres

Mgd Million gallons per day

Gal Gallon

HP Horse power

Cu Cusecs

Chapter One 1.0 Introduction

It is important to emphasise the fact that water is a critical resource to all aspects of human development. It is as old as human life itself. Not only is it the basis of human survival, but water has also been a catalyst to major civilisations and to modern industrial development. In Africa, as is the case in other parts of the developing world, water plays an important role in the social and economic activities of the continent. It is used in all facets of society: in domestic sector, agriculture, energy, industry, mining, fisheries, recreation and tourism’.

Water was also important during the heyday of European explorations of Africa. From the late fifteenth century onwards, explorations into the interior of Africa used water transport extensively. Most explorers followed river courses and that required a fair amount of knowledge about navigation and the nature of water resources. Moreover, in some cases, water bodies formed, in some cases, boundaries of the newly carved out colonial territories in Africa. Rivers and lakes were not only important features for demarcating boundaries; but also used as an important means of transportation in the twentieth century’.

Historically, access to natural resources in African societies was secured through complex institutional arrangements based on geographical territories, a social-political age grade system and kinship’. Although the first written water legislation in East Africa Protectorate (Kenya)was put in place in the 1920s it is clear that indigenous

1 Tempelhoff J.W.N (2005). African Water Histories, Vaal Triangle Faculty North-West University Vanderbijlpark, 2005.

2 Tempelhoff J.W.N. (2005). African Water Histories, Vaal Triangle Faculty North-West University Vanderbijlpark, 2005.

3 Jacobs A. H (1963). The Pastoral Maasai of Kenya: A Report of Anthropological Field Research. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Illinois.

cultures erected institutions to control and manage water long before that. It is sufficient to point to the fact that fairly advanced irrigation systems were in use in the Rift Valley at Engaruka in Tanzania, around 1400-1700 AD‘. The construction and management of these systems could not have been achieved without social organisation and an institutional framework.

Studying the history of traditional water institutions in Kenya is not straightforward as these institutions have generally not been codified and written down. Instead, they are embedded in traditional culture, where they could be said to form a traditional water regime.

Meinzen-Dick and Nkonya identified a number of general features in much of African customary water law. First, water was a resource commonly held by the community and no person could be denied water for ‘primary uses’ such as domestic water supply. Despite this universal right for domestic water, certain water rights were allocated to groups or individuals for specific uses through a social negotiation process’. These features were also central for most customary water institutions in East Africa. Water was treated as a common good, but certain water rights could be acquired. Although water was a common good, this should not be confused with an open-access system‘. Institutions were put in place to exert control over the resource. The control and rights to water exercised by an individual or a group increase with the group’s input of labour or capital into the development of the resource’. Often these water rights were not fixed, but negotiable, in order to adapt to changing circumstances. In times of water scarcity, tougher restrictions could be imposed on water uses and earlier rights hence revoked. Such renegotiation of claims and rights under external pressure has been recorded in traditional communities in both Kenya and Tanzania’. What sometimes could be perceived as an insecurity of

4 Sutton J. E. G (2004). ‘Engaruka. The success and abandonment of an integrated irrigation system in an arid part of the Rift Valley c. fifteenth to seventeenth centuries’, in M Widgren and J E G Sutton (eds) Islands of Intensive Agriculture in Eastern Africa, past & present, James Currey Ltd, Oxford

5 Meinzen-Dick R and L Nkonya (2005). ‘Understanding legal pluralism in water rights: lessons from Africa and Asia, paper presented at International workshop on ‘African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa’, 26-28 January 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa. Internet source checked 2006-11-01 http://www.nri.org/waterlaw/AWLwork- ESop/MEINZEN-DICK-R.pd.

6 Carlson E (2003). To have and to hold: continuity and change in property rights institutions governing water resources among the Meru of Tanzania and the BaKgatla in Botswana, 1925-2000, Almqvist & Wiksell International, Lund, Sweden.

7 Huggins C (2000). Rural Water Tenure in East Africa. A comparative Study of Legal Regimes and Community Responses to Changing Tenure Patterns in Tanzania and Kenya. Final Draft. BASIS CRSP, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Internet source checked 2006-11-01, http://www.ies. wisc.edu/Itc/live/bashorn0005a.pdf

8 Orindi V and Huggins C (2005). “The dynamic relationship between property rights, water resource management and poverty in the Lake Victoria Basin’, paper presented at International Worksop on ‘African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa’, 26-28 January 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa. Internet source checked 2006-11-01 http://www. acts.or.ke/prog/energy/reports/ORINDI-V.pdf tenure in customary water law could instead be seen as a rational response to manage uncertainty in the physical environment’

Much of the customary water institutions in East Africa have been dismantled through the superimposition of statutory law and through major changes in governance system and social structure. Despite this, customary water institutions have partly persisted, and have been important in some rural communities. This has created a situation where several water regimes co-exist and overlap. In addition, water tenure in East Africa is intertwined with land tenure, where also several legal regimes including customary and statutory co-exist. In Uganda for instance, the issue of land tenure has proven particularly complex".

During the early colonial period there were doubts whether the present East African protectorate offered the commercial opportunities that Britain had found in other parts of its empire and so as far as colonial office was concerned, the maintenance of law and order was far more important than economic development or social engineering. The colonial office (CO) was the most important department of state as far as the framing and implementation of policy for Britain’s African colonies such as the East African Protectorate was concerned. In theory, the other most important groups external to the CO were parliament and the cabinet. The secretary of state was responsible for the actions of the CO as regards any colonial dependency, in fact, neither parliament nor the cabinet exerted continuous or direct influence on policy for Kenya”. At the turn of the century, the commercial potential of Kenya’s highland became more apparent to British government officials.

The existence of man has been over millions of years dictated by among other factors the availability, quality, distribution and amount of water. As the world grapples with the shortage of water, the Kenyan situation has been over the years getting worse as water sources continue to diminish. This has motivated politicians as well as policymakers to focus keenly on water development strategies.

The book of history of water supply and governance in Kenya captures concerns about scarcity of water resources, its potential impact on the society, and search for an appropriate way to respond to the looming disaster. Water history is situated

9 Ostrom (1990) have stated that sustainable institutions for common pool resources need to be flexible. North (2005) maintains that institutions in essence are created in order to deal with the uncertainties that societies are exposed to.

10 Meinzen-Dick R and Nkonya L (2005). “Understanding Legal Pluralism in Water Rights: Lessons from Africa and Asia’, Paper Presented at International Worksop on ‘African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa, 26-28 January 2005, Johannesburg, South Africa. Internet, http://www.nri.org/waterlaw/AWLworKESop/MEINZEN-DICK-R. pdf. 2006-11-01

11 Nawangwe B. and Nuwagaba A. (2002). Land Tenure and Administrative Issues in Kampala City and their Effects on Urban Development. Research Report, Makerere University, Kampala.

12 Brett E. A (1973). Colonialism and Underdevelopment in East Africa (London: Heinemann, 1973). 58-59.

within the political, ideological, aesthetic and economic fields of social history and eco-history as well as history of science. It delves into how water has been managed on community level, as well as national, international and global scales. Within this book is the recognition of the existing water management policies, practices and outlooks emanating from deep seated ideas, beliefs and values as well as political inequalities, and technological disparities.

This book elucidates the various innovations and how they were accepted within a community and eventually by the society. In this respect, the role of prominent and ordinary individuals in initiating and propagating ideas and practices through human encounters and communication devices is acknowledged. In this historical quest, how ideas and practices emerging in everyday circumstances are transformed into modalities and eventually norms, sacred believes, cognitive structures schemata and paradigms are recognized as important tools in bringing man closer to his history. The author intends to create a close relationship between an ordinary man deeds and the eventual greatest innovation.

1.1 Physical Conditions

Kenya is located on the East Coast of Africa, with the equator running almost straight through the middle of the country. Kenya borders with Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan in the north, Uganda in the west, Tanzania in the south and the Indian Ocean in the east. Territorial area is 582,646 km?and it is divided into water area of 11,230 km’ and land area of 571,416 km’. The major part of the inland water surface area is covered by a portion of Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana. Of the land area, approximately 490,000km? (close to 86 percent of the land area) is classified as arid and semi-arid land (ASAL). The remaining area of about 81,000 km? is classified as non-arid and profitably usable lands, sustaining a substantial portion of Kenyan economy and human population.