Kenyan President William Ruto said the Government has prioritised the construction and expansion of dams to rebuild agriculture
He noted that the dams held immense power to stimulate food production due to its potential of cutting over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture. During the ground-breaking of the construction of Mwache Dam, in the Fulugani region of Kwale County, on 6 April, the president highlighted that producing more food meant more earnings for farmers and more jobs for the youth.
Set to be completed in August 2026, the US$134.73mn project will provide water to irrigate at least 7,000 acres of land in Kwale, producing US$9.7mn worth of food a year. President Ruto also mentioned that the dam would supply more than 230 million litres of water a day for both irrigation and domestic use, which would likely benefit at least 1.6 million people in Kwale and Mombasa Counties, with the number expected to increase 2 million by 2030.
Moreover, the government also plans to build 100 large and 1,000 small dams, thereby increasing the acreage under irrigation from the current 670,000 to 3 million.
