Sector consultancy
Water and sanitation services are a county function, delivered through regulated utilities, financed in part through national agencies and supervised by WASREB. The rules changed in 2024 and 2025, a merger bill is before Parliament in 2026, and non-revenue water remains the sector's most persistent loss. Policy Oracle verifies the indicators these decisions rest on.
The policy environment
Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 guarantees every person clean and safe water in adequate quantities and reasonable standards of sanitation. The Fourth Schedule assigns water and sanitation services to counties and keeps water protection, hydraulic engineering and the safety of dams with the national government. The Water Act, 2016 builds the sector on that division. The Water Resources Authority manages abstraction and catchments; the Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) licenses utilities and approves tariffs; nine Water Works Development Agencies develop bulk infrastructure; the Water Sector Trust Fund finances services in marginalised and underserved areas; and the Water Tribunal hears appeals. Counties establish water service providers, which must meet WASREB's commercial viability standards, and must make provision for rural areas that no utility can serve viably.
The rules have moved quickly since 2024. The Water (Amendment) Act, 2024, in force since 24 December 2024, opened bulk water supply to purchase agreements and public-private partnerships, required Water Works Development Agencies to hold WASREB licences for bulk services, extended WASREB tariff approval to bulk and irrigation water, and reconstituted the Water Tribunal under the Judicial Service Commission. The Water (Services) Regulations, 2025, published as Legal Notice No. 54 of 2025, oblige every county to adopt a five-year water and sewerage strategy with non-revenue water targets and set out procedures for tariff review, clustering of providers and bulk supply. In 2026 the National Assembly received the Water (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which would fold the National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority into the National Irrigation Authority.
Performance has not kept pace with the law. WASREB's Impact 17 report, covering 2023/24, put average non-revenue water at 44 per cent against a sector benchmark of 25 per cent, found average tariffs below the cost of service, and recorded sewerage coverage in utility areas slipping from 16 to 15 per cent. Impact 18, launched in June 2026, assessed 91 water service providers and all 47 county governments for 2024/25. Sanitation policy sits with the Ministry of Health under the Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy 2016-2030, while the World Bank-supported Kenya Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme (K-WASH) ties disbursements in participating counties to verified results. For counties, utilities and financiers, the binding constraint is now reliable, independently verified data.
Where the pressure is
Reviewed October 2026. Each pressure traces to a law, a policy or a ruling set out below.
Impact 17 put average non-revenue water at 44 per cent against a 25 per cent benchmark, a loss WASREB valued at about KSh 11.9 billion for 2023/24. The 2025 Regulations require every county strategy to carry non-revenue water targets, so boards and county executives must decide where to invest in metering, zoning and leak repair, and how to prove the gains.
WASREB found average tariffs short of the cost of service delivery in 2023/24, leaving many utilities unable to fund maintenance or expansion. Tariff reviews under the 2025 Regulations must be lodged six months before expiry and may include indexation, which forces counties to weigh affordability against utility solvency.
The 2024 amendment allows bulk water purchase agreements with private investors and public-private partnerships for water services. Contracting authorities need sound demand forecasts, tariff paths and risk allocation before committing, and WASREB must license and price each arrangement.
The Water (Amendment) Bill, 2026 would abolish the National Water Harvesting and Storage Authority and transfer its functions to the National Irrigation Authority. Rights groups and leaders in the Rift Valley have pressed for wider public participation, and projects under the Authority would pass to the irrigation agency.
Impact 17 attributes most of the recent growth in reported coverage to small-scale service providers rather than regulated utilities. Counties must now hold community and private operators to WASREB standards for rural and underserved areas and decide which schemes to cluster with utilities.
Sewerage coverage fell in Impact 17, and only a small share of domestic wastewater is safely treated. With results-based programmes such as K-WASH paying against verified sanitation and open defecation free outcomes, counties need credible baselines and independent verification.
Laws, plans and institutions
The Acts and regulations that create obligations, the policies and programmes that set direction, and the institutions that hold the mandate.
Who does what
How the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 divides the sector between the national government and the 47 county governments.
What we offer
Our practices combine to answer the questions this sector raises. Every assignment is scoped to the institution.
Independent verification of utility, county and programme indicators against WASREB definitions and the disbursement-linked indicators of results-based programmes such as K-WASH. Policy Oracle verified urban WASH indicators and service monitoring data for WaterAid in 2025 and ran an integrated water security indicator verification pilot for the County Government of Makueni in 2022.
Monitoring systems that track coverage, hours of supply, metering, non-revenue water and complaint handling for county water service providers and their oversight departments. Reporting is aligned with WASREB Impact indicators and the county water and sewerage strategies required by the Water (Services) Regulations, 2025.
County and catchment assessments that link water resources, storage, bulk supply and service delivery, drawing on Water Resources Authority, utility and county data. They give county executives and development partners an evidence base for investment, clustering and bulk water decisions under the Water (Amendment) Act, 2024.
Evaluations of sanitation, hygiene and open defecation free programmes against the Kenya Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene Policy 2016-2030 and county sanitation laws. We assess outcomes, sustainability and value for money, and set out what counties and partners should fund next.
Financial analysis of tariff applications, cost coverage and the revenue value of non-revenue water for utilities and counties preparing for WASREB tariff reviews. The analysis sets out the trade-off between tariff adjustment, loss reduction and county subsidy.
Our work in this sector
| Year | Client | Engagement | Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | WaterAid | Urban WASH Indicator Verification and Service Monitoring | WASH M&E |
| 2022 | County Government of Makueni | Integrated Water Security Indicator Verification Pilot | WASH Verification |
Key references
Policy environment reviewed October 2026. Laws, regulations and programmes change; consult the official text before relying on any summary here.
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Tell us what you need to decide and by when. We will set it against the law, policy and budget realities of the sector and propose the work.