The government of Kenya has set its sights on raising an estimated USD 350 million over the next decade to restore Lake Victoria Basin ecosystems and improve livelihoods , a significant move in the country’s climate resilience and sustainable development efforts.
The commitment was reinforced during a Principal Secretaries’ Strategic Breakfast Meeting in Nairobi, where the Principal Secretary for Environment and Climate Change, Festus K. Ng’eno, introduced the Multi-sectoral, Multiphase Programme for Ecosystem Stabilization and Socio-economic Development of the Lake Victoria Basin (rMPA) as Kenya’s next flagship program in the region.
Dr. Ng’eno explained that the program marks a transition from short-term environmental projects to a long-term, programmatic approach to investment that aims to ensure long-term ecosystem restoration, climate resilience, and economic development.
The new program comes after the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP I and II), which paved the way for transboundary environmental cooperation before closing in 2017. The rMPA builds on this success but takes a more comprehensive and integrated approach that links environmental conservation with socio-economic development.
Forestry Principal Secretary Gitonga Mugambi emphasized the need for accountability and inter-ministerial coordination, saying Forestry Principal Secretary Gitonga Mugambi emphasized the need for accountability and inter-ministerial collaboration, saying that effective collaboration between the national and county governments will be essential in ensuring that the benefits achieved are realized by the people living around the basin.
“The programme must remain firmly focused on improving livelihoods and ensuring measurable impact for the people of Kenya,” he emphasized.
The programme is being developed within a regional framework that is supported by the World Bank and coordinated by the Lake Victoria Basin Commission. The funding is expected to be sourced from a combination of the World Bank’s concessional funding, as well as support from the Government of Kenya.
In a significant display of national ownership, Dr. Ng’eno announced that the National Treasury has allocated about USD 100 million in the FY 2027/28 resource envelope to support the launch of the first phase of the programme’s implementation.
The rMPA will specifically target the county priorities in the basin, including, Watershed restoration,Sanitation services, Fisheries development, Sustainable agriculture and Green and blue jobs creation.The programme will also address the emerging challenges of pollution, ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanization, and climate variability pressures that are increasingly threatening
