From Water Scarcity to a Thriving Farm

For Hosea Kiplagat Yator, farming has always been more than a way of life, it is how he provides for his family and builds a future for his two children. He has spent most of his life working his land in Soy Ward, Elgeyo Marakwet, growing maize and other crops.

But for years, one challenge stood between him and a more secure livelihood: access to reliable water.

Water scarcity was one of the biggest challenges facing Hosea and his community. Farmers depended on distant water sources, making it difficult to access enough water for their households and farms. For a community whose livelihoods depend heavily on agriculture, reliable access to water is essential; not only for food production, but also for household wellbeing and resilience to a changing climate.

Rather than waiting for solutions to come from outside, community members came together to identify the challenges that mattered most to them. Through this, access to water emerged as one of their key priorities.

This process of community-led prioritisation sits within a bigger national effort. Kenya’s Financing Locally Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) programme, the Government of Kenya’s flagship climate initiative implemented with support from the World Bank and other partners, was designed to channel climate finance directly to counties so that communities can identify and lead their own climate solutions. It is an ambitious and important programme, and like many large, newly established financing mechanisms, its promise is still being matched by practice: in counties such as Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo, community awareness of FLLoCA and opportunities to engage with county-level climate processes remain limited, meaning many communities are not yet able to fully exercise the role the programme envisions for them.

This is precisely the gap the Uwazi na Maendeleo Mashinani project was designed to help close. Implemented by DanChurchAid Kenya together with its partner, the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), since January 2025, the project works to build communities’ awareness of FLLoCA and other climate financing, strengthen their capacity to engage county governments and monitor project implementation, and support inclusive, community-led oversight, particularly for women, youth and marginalised groups. The Chebonet story below shows what this looks like in practice.

Equipping communities to hold projects accountable

To strengthen their ability to participate meaningfully, selected community members were trained as social auditors. The training covered community mobilisation and public participation, relevant county and national laws and policies, including the Equitable Development Act for Elgeyo-Marakwet County, the Public Finance Management Act and Chapter Six of the Constitution of Kenya.

The social auditors were also equipped with practical skills on social accountability tools, how to conduct a social audit and how to prepare social audit reports.

Armed with this knowledge, community members were better positioned to engage with local authorities, follow up on development projects and assess whether public investments were delivering what had been promised.

From a community priority to a functioning borehole

Following the community’s prioritisation of water, the county government allocated resources to drill a borehole at Chebonet Primary School, providing a much-needed water source closer to the community.

The community, supported by Uwazi na Maendeleo Mashinani, conducted a social audit of the project. Through the process, social auditors followed the implementation of the borehole, monitoring whether the project was delivered on time and according to the agreed specifications.

The result was not simply a completed infrastructure project. It was a community that had been equipped to participate in, monitor and demand accountability around a development investment that directly affected their lives.

But the community saw an opportunity to go further.

Taking the solution the last mile

With the borehole in place, community members worked to extend its benefits beyond the school to surrounding households.

FLLoCA funding is primarily directed toward larger infrastructure and resilience investments, in sectors such as agriculture, water, environment and forestry, with only a small share set aside for the kind of civic engagement and community-led follow-through that turns an investment like the Chebonet borehole into lasting local benefit. To help fill that gap, Uwazi na Maendeleo Mashinani piloted a shadow grants mechanism: small, targeted grants designed to complement, not duplicate, FLLoCA funding by strengthening local advocacy, social audit capacity and community-driven climate solutions, drawing on DCA’s Survivor and Community-Led Response (SCLR) and Community-Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) approaches to ensure resources go directly toward the priorities communities identify themselves.

Through a KES 125,000 (USD 1,000) shadow grant from NCCK, the community purchased pipes to support last-mile water connectivity, bringing water closer to homes and farms.

Today, 50 households are connected to the water supply.

For Hosea, this has made a tangible difference.

With water more readily available, farming has become easier. He can grow enough maize to feed his family while also producing a surplus to sell and earn an income.

“It is now easier. I am able to have food for my family and also sell what I produce.”

For Hosea, improved access to water means fewer challenges in sustaining his farm and greater stability for his household. His children have food more consistently, while he has greater confidence in his ability to provide for his family.

A locally led response to a climate challenge

The story of Chebonet is also a story of locally led climate action.

Water scarcity is a challenge that can become more difficult as communities experience changing weather patterns and increasing pressure on water resources. Yet the response in Chebonet did not begin with a solution designed elsewhere. The community identified its own priority, participated in the process, monitored the public investment and took further action to extend the solution to households.

This is what FLLoCA, at its best, is meant to enable: locally led climate solutions that place communities at the centre of identifying and responding to the challenges affecting them. The Chebonet experience shows how, with the right support, that vision can take root. The borehole provided the infrastructure; community participation, backed by social audit skills and a small, flexible shadow grant, helped make the solution more relevant, accountable and far-reaching than the original investment alone.

For Hosea and the other households connected to the water supply, the impact is practical: water closer to home, more opportunities to farm, food for their families and income from what they produce.

For the wider community, it demonstrates what is possible when people are not simply recipients of development interventions, but are equipped to identify their priorities, participate in decisions, hold projects accountable and lead solutions to the challenges they face.

From a community-identified priority to a functioning borehole, and from a borehole to water flowing closer to homes and farms, Chebonet shows how locally led action, supported by tools like social audits and shadow grants, can turn a shared challenge into a foundation for greater resilience.