Kenya bets Sh598bn on Galana Kulalu revival to end food imports

Principal Secretary for Irrigation Ephantus Kimotho. 

Kenya is staking Sh598 billion on a 10-year irrigation overhaul anchored on the revival of the Galana Kulalu Food Security Project, a scheme long written off as a costly failure, as the government moves to end reliance on food imports.

Principal Secretary for Irrigation Ephantus Kimotho presented the National Irrigation Sector Investment Plan (NISIP) 2025–2035 on Wednesday, June 3, during the Head of Public Service Monthly Meeting at Konza Technopolis, outlining how the state intends to nearly double irrigated land from 664,000 acres to 1,289,142 acres over the next decade.

At the heart of the plan is Galana Kulalu, a 200,000-acre scheme in the Coast region that successive governments have poured billions into since 2014, with little to show for it. The state now says the project will produce over 14 million bags of maize annually once fully operational, backed by a completed intake and reservoir holding 450,000 cubic metres of water.

"By reducing food imports, Kenya will create more jobs, increase foreign direct investments, facilitate a low cost of living, and enhance the country's economy," said Kimotho.

The plan targets irrigated maize output to rise from 200,000 bags to 5.075 million 90kg bags. Rice production is projected to jump from 305,000 metric tonnes to 990,000 metric tonnes, a figure the government says will eliminate the national rice deficit without imports.

Water available for irrigation is projected to rise from 55.4 million cubic metres to 2,379.2 million cubic metres by 2027/2028, through new dams including the Galana Dam straddling Tana River and Kilifi counties and the High Grand Falls dam in Tharaka Nithi and Kitui counties.

Kimotho said 39pc of the Sh598 billion will come from the government and development partners, with the private sector expected to finance the remaining 61pc, a funding structure that has historically struggled to attract private capital into large-scale irrigation in Kenya.

On horticulture, the state has completed 50 community irrigation schemes covering 60,000 acres, with 86 more underway, targeting linkage of over 100,000 farmers to irrigation water. A further 143 water pans and small dams have been finished, with 65 ongoing, alongside 8,724 household water pans.

NISIP projects that full implementation will generate Sh240 billion in annual revenues and create over five million direct and indirect jobs, though those projections rest heavily on Galana Kulalu delivering at a scale it has never approached in over a decade of attempts.