- 91% of Kenya’s boreholes are privately owned, leaving public schools in ASALs thirsty and disadvantaged.
- Education without water is impossible; drought and scarcity are driving children out of classrooms in Northern Kenya.
- Rainwater harvesting is the overlooked solution, a low-cost, sustainable path to resilience for schools in arid regions.
According to the KNBS Economic Survey 2025 Report, between 2021 and 2024 the number of boreholes drilled in Kenya rose from 20,409 to 47,199 an exponential 56% increase. In 2024 alone, these boreholes accounted for 244.1 million cubic meters of groundwater extraction, placing immense strain on aquifers and water tables.
Shockingly, 91% of these boreholes are owned by private entities, with only 9% serving public facilities. This imbalance exposes the groundwater industry to a dangerous mix of water scarcity, salinity, aquifer depletion, and deepening social inequality. Public institutions, especially learning institutions, remain tremendously disadvantaged by these circumstances.
Education in Kenya is a shared function between the national and county governments. Only Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) is fully devolved. Yet, despite education receiving the largest share of the 2025/26 national budget KES 702.7 billion (28% of the total KES 4.2 trillion budget) very little goes toward addressing schools’ day-to-day water needs. Most funds flow to administrative costs at TSC, HELB, and infrastructure projects, leaving schools to depend on the politically vulnerable NG-CDF.
Under the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), the demand for expanded school infrastructure is higher than ever. Without water, however, classrooms cannot function. Kenya’s 2010 Constitution (Article 43(1)(d)) guarantees the right to clean and safe water in adequate quantities, while the Water Act 2016 assigns both national and county governments responsibility for actualizing this right. Yet in practice, schools particularly in ASAL counties are left behind.
ASAL counties, already water-scarce, face a double tragedy: lack of access to safe water in schools not only undermines learning but also exposes children to waterborne diseases.
UNICEF studies reveal that during the 2021 drought the worst in the Horn of Africa in 40 years 1.5 million Kenyan children were forced out of school. In ASAL counties, this figure compounded the 1.9 million children already out of school due to poverty and harsh living conditions even before the drought.
The reality is simple: ensuring reliable water supply in schools is not just about water, it is about securing the future of education in Northern Kenya.
This demands a form of National Government Affirmative Action deliberate investments to rescue the academic future of pastoralist children in public schools across ASAL counties. Rainwater harvesting, integrated into all public institutions, offers a sustainable, low-cost, and climate-resilient path forward.
In summary, rather than relentlessly butchering our underground hydrogeology while billions of litres of rainwater go to waste, we must fervently invest in rainwater harvesting interventions especially in schools across Northern Kenya counties
Dida Fayo is the Director of Programs, Planning & Implementation at Northern Rangelands Trust, and a PhD Candidate.