PS Omollo: Gov’t promoting peace through proper water management

Speaking on Tuesday during the International Conference on Water, Peace and Security 2025, in Nairobi, Interior Principal Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo said President William Ruto’s administration has been proactive in turning policy into practice, critically through the interior ministry that is charged with the responsibility on matters of internal security and development.

Omollo said there are five key initiatives through which this is being implemented, as part of the efforts to properly manage water and fairly distribute the available shared resources. 

“Every first Friday of the month through our local administrative heads, we mobilise communities and we have christened this the Chiefs Climate Action Day during which citizens come together to plant trees as well as restore landscapes,” PS Omollo said. 

Through this, close to 4k chiefs nationwide are directly involved to support the national goal of growing 15 billion trees by 2032. 

The PS further said the government is integrating conflict sensitive approaches to natural resource management, terming it Kenya's new peace building architecture that guides national policy on peacebuilding and conflict management.

“It means that within the water sector planning, we deliberately assess and mitigate the potential for resource competition to spark dispute by involving all stakeholders, and working with counties and non-state partners, to strengthen community-based security and early warning systems that are related to resource conflicts.”

Omollo added that the government is improving the integration of data on water availability, weather forecasts and resource use mapping into conflict early warning models. This allows authorities and local peace committees to anticipate and de-escalate potential water related conflict before tensions turn violent. 

Further, the government is enhancing cross sector collaboration at the national level where ministries and various agencies responsible for water, environment, agriculture and security are working closely through joint task forces and shared programs. 

Within the ministry of interior, we have a dedicated police unit, the Water Police Unit, that is meant to secure the existing water infrastructure and as a country we are now embarking on a very ambitious program where we will be rolling out huge water infrastructure programs, big dams and small dams to address the challenge of water scarcity but also to help support the agriculture sector,” he further said.

On the regional and international front, PS Omollo said Kenya remains an active partner in transboundary water cooperation frameworks. He cited he Lake Turkana basin which Kenya shares with Ethiopia, as one area where they have been working through bilateral commissions and IGAD initiatives to improve security and sustainable use of the resources available in Turkana. 

“Local communities on both sides are being engaged in joint peace dialogues and resource management projects. Likewise, Kenya is a committed member of the Nile Basin initiative, collaborating with ten other countries to manage the waters of River Nile cooperatively.”

The three-day conference brought together representatives from governments, international organisations, and research institutions to explore how shared water resources can unite communities instead of dividing them.

Others who spoke at the conference include former Ghanaian President H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga from the African Union.

This year’s theme is ‘Water as a Catalyst for Peace and Cooperation’.