Turkana West – May 15, 2026 (Public Communication and Media Relations)
The County Government, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) through the TeachWell Project, conducted a three-day Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) spot-check exercise in 10 primary and junior schools across Lokichoggio and Turkana West sub-counties. This project is funded by Lego and Grundfos foundations.
The visits covered schools supported under the project, which currently reaches 84 schools — 16 in Lokichoggio and 68 in Turkana West and Turkana North sub-counties.
The sub-county led assessment teams comprised of officers from the health and education departments, and IRC WASH officers.
The visits aimed to assess the state of public health and hygiene in schools ahead of planned hygiene promotion and school health club capacity-building training for teacher patrons. Good practices identified during the visits will be showcased during the training and replicated in other schools.
Now in its third year, the five-year education project seeks to improve the overall well-being and learning environment of learners through strengthened WASH interventions. The initiative supports school infrastructure development through construction, rehabilitation, improved water access, and hygiene promotion activities.
The hygiene promotion component includes the establishment of school health clubs consisting of about 40 learners each, monitoring and evaluation of the clubs, community awareness campaigns using learners as advocates, teacher training on child hygiene practices, and the provision of environmental and cleaning supplies.
The spot-check visits covered three schools in Lokichoggio Sub-County, two schools in Kakuma Refugee Camp, two in the Kakuma host community, and three schools in Turkana North that are administratively under Turkana West – Makutano, Naduat, and St. Teresa Pelekech.
During the exercise, sub-county teams acknowledged the positive impact of the project and called for expanded support to include other critical health interventions such as school deworming programmes, increased water access, harmonised routine school visits, inclusive training for teachers, healthcare workers and community health teams, nutrition support, and stronger collaboration among partners to reduce duplication of activities.
The IRC team, led by Mercy Amdanny, a WASH Officer, highlighted the project’s achievements so far, noting that schools received one, two, or all three project components – water access, construction and rehabilitation of sanitation facilities, and hygiene promotion; depending on assessed needs and scoring outcomes.
Supporting supervision, Reuben Kibiego, Assistant Director and County WASH Coordinator, noted that inadequate water access remains the leading contributor to poor hygiene and other public health concerns in most schools visited.
“In most of the schools we visited, lack of water appeared to be the major contributing factor to other public health concerns. Schools with running water demonstrated better hygiene practices compared to those without reliable access,” he said.
Kibiego further noted that some teachers require additional capacity building on hygiene best practices, as well as support with environmental health tools, to help create safer learning environments for learners.
Gladys Sadera, a teacher Trainer with Lutheran World Federation (LWF), said WASH and public health challenges are common across schools within the refugee camp setting.
“Given the diverse backgrounds, cultural beliefs, and trauma experiences among learners, continuous awareness creation remains important,” she said.
She further called for increased support for teachers and stronger involvement of additional stakeholders, noting that budget cuts had led to a significant reduction in workforce despite the steadily growing population.
In Lokichoggio, water shortages were identified as a major contributor to malnutrition and related health concerns. In Naduat and Makutano, other than water, mining activities were cited as a key factor contributing to interruptions in learning. Educators in the affected areas noted that safer and healthier school environments would encourage more learners to remain in school.
With these schools hosting between 500 to over 2,000 children, teachers committed to implementing the recommendations made during the visits and improving sanitation and hygiene standards within their schools.
“We will act on the feedback received and work together with our learners to ensure our school environments remain clean and safe,” said Tracy Makokha, Head of Institution at Eliyes Primary School in Kakuma.
IRC is the lead partner in the consortium implementing the WASH, psychosocial support interventions, and crisis modifier component. Other partners include Lutheran World Federation for education, FilmAid Kenya for communications, RTI International for education and learning support, and APHRC for research.
Nancy Birech representing the County Health Promotions was joined by Medical Officers of Health from Turkana North, Lokichoggio and Turkana West were present namely Joel Lochor, Dalmas Lokok, and John Ngasike among other sub-county health promotions, public health, education, and water officers and coordinators.
