Kenya
Tackling challenges caused by rapid urbanisation
Women spread the message: story of a communications leader in Kenya
March 2022: From the hard work done by female residents in their communities to their role as mothers and sisters looking after little children, women are central to all our work promoting clean water and safely managed sanitation in vulnerable communities.
Kenya is one of the most unequal countries in the world.
Kenya’s unprecedented urban growth is attributable two main factors: natural population growth and rural-urban migration due to factors like drought, conflict and rural poverty. This rapid urbanisation has left Kenyan cities with huge unmet demand for critical infrastructure and basic services, adversely affecting quality of life for urban residents.
Rapid but poorly managed urbanisation has led to the proliferation of overcrowded and impoverished informal settlements; around 50% of people in major cities live in such communities. Only one third of urban residents have access to at least a basic sanitation service.
We have worked in Kenya since 2006, in Nairobi, Naivasha, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu and Malindi. By forming partnerships with service providers, local and national governments and other stakeholders we are working to create affordable and sustainable water and sanitation services for low-income urban communities.
WSUP is supporting water service providers to strengthen their service delivery to low income areas through provision of primary and tertiary networks and demand creation for last mile connections.
New video shows how a citywide plan aims to tackle Malindi’s dirty secret: sanitation
July 2021: Malindi, popular for its beaches, has a dirty secret. Three-quarters of the residents do not have access to safely managed sanitation. WSUP has been working with city leaders to create an ambitious sanitation plan to tackle the problem.
Building urban resilience in the face of Covid-19: new video shows our hygiene work in Ghana and Kenya
July 2021: WSUP with the support of the Hygiene & Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC) – a UK government and Unilever initiative – delivered a rapid customer focused communication hygiene campaign, to combat the spread of Covid-19 in some of the most vulnerable communities in Ghana and Kenya.
At the epicentre of the crisis: battling to provide clean water in Kenya
September 2020: Antony Njaramba, Managing Director of the Mombasa Water Supply and Sanitation Company, gives us a first-hand account of how the crisis has affected water supply in the city of Mombasa.
Customer experience: everyone’s business and no one’s responsibility
July 2020: Great customer service should be the norm rather than the exception, but someone needs to be responsible for it. In Kenya we’ve seen that a dedicated marketing function can help water service providers ensure customer satisfaction and retention
Learn more about our work in Kenya:
Blog: June 2020 – Citywide access to water and sanitation services in Kenya
Report: May 2020 – Barriers for female decision-makers in Kenya’s sanitation sector
Blog: March 2020 – Emerging findings on gender and decision making in sanitation public bodies
Report: June 2020 – Referee! Responsibilities, regulations and regulating for urban sanitation
Blog: July 2019 – What is the market like for pro-poor, safe emptying services in Kisumu, Kenya?
Blog: June 2018 – Achieving national impact through regulatory improvements
Project: March 2020 – Barriers to women adopting decision-making roles in sanitation public bodies
This project delivered an analysis of the barriers that prevent women in Kenya taking leadership roles in sanitation (particularly urban), and aimed to identify ways in which those barriers might be overcome.
To find out how you can support our work in Kenya, please contact us at partnerships@wsup.com or call us on +44 (0)20 7822 1867.