A report by the Auditor General has exposed gaps in the country's conservation efforts of critical water towers.
In a performance audit of Kenya Water Tower Agency (KWTA) between July 2017 and December 2022, only 3.9 per cent of 189,028 ha of degraded water towers have been reforested.
The gazetted water towers consist of five major water towers - Mt Kenya, Aberdare Ranges, Mau Forest complex, Cherangani hills and Mt Elgon and 13 minor but critical water towers.
KWTA was established in 2012 to coordinate and oversee the conservation and sustainable management of the water towers.
However, the auditor general noted that despite the conservation efforts, water towers face challenges that limit their capacity to provide critical services.
The audit focused on 18 gazetted water towers, out of which nine water towers were sampled for audit data collection.
The water towers were Aberdare Ranges, Cherangani Hills, Mau forest complex, Chyulu Hills, Kirisia Hills, Loita Hills, Nyambene Hills, Mt Marsabit and Shimba Hills.
Interviews and a review of status assessment reports show 189,028 were under high levels of degradation in the nine sampled water towers.
A further look shows in Aberdare Ranges, out of 16,000 ha under high degradation, 350 ha was rehabilitated, representing 2.19 per cent.
In Maasai Mau Block, out of 11,391 ha, 6,888.5 ha was rehabilitated, representing 60.47 per cent. This was done through strategic partnerships with other actors and managed to reforest 6,144.5 ha.
The agency reportedly spent Sh174 million on tree planting activities towards the 10 per cent National Tree Cover Campaign during the 2019-20 to 2021-22 period.
Out of the seven sites whose seedling audit reports were availed for audit, only two had a survival rate of 80 per cent and above. Block 67 in Maasai Mau recorded a very low survival rate of 39.4 per cent.
"The low seedling survival rates in reforested areas were also observed during audit inspection. For example, patches of bare land were observed in sites the agency claimed to have reforested in Nyambene Hills, Shimba Hills and Maasai Mau Forest."
The audit further found though the agency had targeted the production of 1,200,000 seedlings, only a total of 153,536 seedlings were produced. They could only rehabilitate 153.54 ha.
In the audit, it was found the Agency had yet to undertake a comprehensive survey and mapping of the 18 gazetted water towers.
This was except for the Maasai Mau Block within the Mau Forest complex, where the agency oversaw the mapping and realignment of 60 kilometres out of its 119 kilometres boundary.
"According to the Maasai Mau Phase II action plan, the agency had targeted to construct an electric smart fence along the Maasai Mau Block covering the entire 199 km boundary within two years, from August 2019. However, only 30 km of the fence had been constructed as at the time of audit in 2022."
Out of the nine sampled water towers, only three that host national parks had fenced boundaries done by Kenya Wildlife Service in collaboration with David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
"The lack of mapping and demarcation of boundaries exposed water towers to destructive human activities, especially encroachment. Interviews and document reviews revealed that all the sampled nine water towers had landed outside the protected forest area, ranging from 47 to 100 per cent," the audit noted.
In the Mau Forest complex, for instance, in South Mau, 99 per cent of the area is outside the protected forest, and two other forest blocks of East Mau and Maasai Mau had 57 and 52 per cent respectively.
Further interviews with Agency staff and review of status reports revealed that most rivers and springs emanating from these water towers had recorded reduced volumes over the years due to destructive human activities.
The audit revealed that the agency had identified critical water catchments in only nine water towers, out of which only three were among the 18 gazetted.
The gazetted water towers were Loita Hills, Nyambene Hills and Maasai Mau Block, while the non-gazetted ones were Endau Hills, Elgeyo Hills, Kavonge-Museve, Mbooni Hills, Ngong Hills and Makuli-Nzaui.
"Except for Maasai Mau Block, critical water catchments were yet to be identified and assessed in major water towers such as Mt Kenya, Aberdare Ranges, Cherangani, Mt Elgon and the entire Mau Forest Complex," the report noted.
The audit added: "While gazettement is a necessary precondition for protection, none of the identified critical catchment lands had been surveyed and gazetted as at the time of the audit."
It was established during the audit that a joint enforcement unit, established to provide a multi-agency approach to the protection of Mau Forest Complex, did not seem to be effective in deterring deforestation activities.
A review of the unit's monthly reports revealed that 69,085 cedar posts and 5,000 bags of charcoal were seized between January 2017 and December 2022.
However, there were no reports available for 19 months spread over four years out of six years under review.
In the report, the Agency oversaw reclamation of 4,500 ha in 2018 and 8,869 ha in 2019 in Maasai Mau. However, information on total reclaimed land was not available.
A further 7,374 ha within sampled nine water towers was rehabilitated during the period under review, though, planted sites recorded low seedling survival rates.
It was established Water Towers Conservation and Coordination Policy 2019 and Kenya Water Towers Bill, 2019 were yet to be presented to parliament for enactment as at the time of the audit.
KWTA, during the period under review, saw its development budget reduce from Sh549 million to Sh180 million, hence negatively impacting its mandate of surveying and mapping gazetted water towers.
Even while faced with budgetary constraints during the period, the agency spent Sh14 million to survey water towers, all of which were non-gazetted.
It was not clear how the agency settled on the ten water towers since the agency lacked identification criteria and further, the mapped water towers were yet to be gazetted at the time of finalizing the report.
A Water Tower Conservation Fund established in 2010, became inactive in 2014 with approximately Sh30 million in the account following the expiry of the term of its management committee.
"No reason was provided for failure to appoint a management committee. If operationalised, the Fund would provide the agency with a platform for resource mobilization, from the government and donors," the report noted.
A review of the agency's financial documents revealed that Sh77.4 million was spent on the identification and assessment of critical water catchments, wetlands, and biodiversity hot spots.
According to the report, limited mapping denied stakeholders the information needed to prioritise conservation activities, leaving the land exposed to destructive human activities.
"For example, analysis of water quantity data revealed a declined trend in Njoro River, whose source is Enapuipui swamp. Njoro river drains into Lake Nakuru, which is a Ramsar site," the report shows.
While the agency sought to map, survey and register critical catchment areas, it lacked the legal mandate. Therefore, the agency's work was limited to the identification of critical water catchment areas.
The audit revealed that the agency did not have comprehensive and up-to-date information on the extent of encroachment in the Mau Forest Complex.
Due to insufficient reclamation, the Mau Forest Complex is still threatened by encroachers who often clear forest areas to make room for settlement and crop production.
The audit found the information currently in use is outdated and based on the 2009 Report of the Prime Minister's Task Force on the conservation of the Mau Forest Complex.
Whereas the Mau Forest Complex consists of 22 forest blocks, boundary mapping had only been done in Maasai Mau, where 60 km of its 119 km was mapped and realigned.
Due to conflicting boundaries, the audit said there were two boundaries in the Nkareta area - One set by the Ole Ntutu Commission and another by the Water Towers interim coordinating secretariat.
In the review of documents, the agency rehabilitated 11 water towers through tree planting. However, seven out of the 11 water towers rehabilitated were nine-gazetted.
"Critical water towers such as Cherangani, Mt Elgon were not considered for reforestation, despite them having faced degradation."
The KWTA spent Sh147.7 million on bamboo enterprise, which involved the establishment of the National Bamboo growing demonstration centres at Kaptagat Forest Elgeyo Hills.
However, a visit by the auditors revealed the site had been neglected, and the intended objective of providing alternative livelihood was not achieved.
In another program to provide honey production to communities living along the water towers, the audit revealed out of 665 beehives, only 93 hives have colonization.
The agency spent Sh21 million between 2018 and 2021 on six water towers.
According to the audit, only Samburu beekeepers had set up a honey processing factory, though interviews revealed the agency had provided a manual centrifuge, yet the honey produced was highly viscous.
