Kenya launched a $200 million plan to restore watersheds in 12 counties

Kenya has launched a five-year effort to rehabilitate 200,000 hectares of damaged land and the water that runs off it. KBC reported the announcement on November 2, 2026. The Kenya Watershed Services Improvement Project is financed by the World Bank at about $200 million, which the report also rendered as about 26 billion Kenyan shillings. Environment Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa said restoration has to go past planting trees to the reasons land fails, and to livelihoods for the people who depend on it.

The work covers five landscapes: Marsabit, Marmanet, the Nyambene Hills, the Chyulu Hills, and Shimba Hills, across 12 counties: Marsabit, Isiolo, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Laikipia, Samburu, Baringo, Makueni, Kitui, Garissa, Tana River, and Kwale. The program became effective on December 23, 2025. It brings in the Kenya Forest Service, the Kenya Forestry Research Institute, the National Environment Management Authority, and the Water Resources Authority, with county governments. Priority groups include community organizations and nature-based enterprises. The hectares and the dollars are the plan. They are not a tally of trees already planted.