Lodwar – May 8, 2026 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
The County Government is calling on water sector players in Turkana to adopt a sector-wide approach that brings together experts in climate change, peace, partnerships, health, Monitoring and Evaluation, governance, education, natural resources, and the environment to design joint programs.
Speaking during a consultative forum at Kakuma, Chief Officer for Partnerships Janerose Tioko said a recent assessment in Turkana West by the Climate Proofing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (CP-WASH) program provided clear evidence for coordinated action to achieve more sustainable outcomes.
The assessment used the Community Scorecard tool, administered to both host and refugee populations residing the project area Letea, Kalobeyei, Kakuma and Lopur wards.
CP-WASH is a three-year program running from 2024 to 2026, implemented by a consortium led by Plan International Kenya. Swisscontact, Water Mission, and ApAD are co-implementers.
The forum was organized to share the assessment findings, facilitate the design of joint interventions, and build capacity on strengthening water governance systems and coordination.
“While we appreciate CP-WASH partners for administering the community scorecard and releasing the results, county departments identified to design solutions must take up their roles with seriousness. The Partnerships Office will play the coordination role,” Tioko said.
Deputy Director for Partnerships and donor coordination Mike Aupe added revealed that the approach used by the CP WASH program would be shared to other partners as key learning in tapping expertise from a variety of players whose work cuts across sectors.
“This is the very first time departments not really associated with WASH are attending a joint meeting. The directorate of partnership commits to share the approach to all other partners for adoption,” he said.
Plan International Kenya Program Manager Mark Lominito said the scorecard results highlighted gaps in water governance, human resource capacity, and emergency response to climate-related challenges that require joint interventions.
“Since we did not want to get it wrong, community participation was intentionally included in the design of CP-WASH, and the community scorecard provided the right results. The best way forward is to adopt a sector-wide approach to close the gaps affecting service delivery to the targeted 30,000 families in host and refugee populations,” Lominito said.
Speaking for the partner implementing the Governance and advocacy component ApAD, Daisy Munyes said that the joint meeting had unearthed the untapped potential of peace committees as avenues of discussing governance systems much the same way as the environment and climate change wards and village level committees.
