Explainer: Why Kenya has published its water accounts for the first time
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has published Kenya’s first ever physical water accounts.
The Kenya Physical Water Accounts, 2021–2023 are the first edition of Kenya’s water accounts compiled in accordance with the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water).
They record, for the first time in a single consistent framework, how water is abstracted from the natural environment, distributed through utilities, used across economic sectors and households, and returned to the environment through runoff, recharge, evapotranspiration, and wastewater discharge.
The production of these accounts is part of Kenya’s broader commitment to natural capital accounting under the National Plan for the Advancement of Environmental Economic Accounting (NP-AEEA) 2025 to 2028.
Alongside the energy, land, forest, and ecosystem accounts being developed in parallel; the water accounts form part of a growing statistical infrastructure that positions Kenya among a small but growing number of African countries systematically measuring the contribution of natural resources to economic development.
Water is central to Kenya’s economic and social life. It sustains agriculture, generates electricity, supports industry, and underpins the health and livelihoods of millions of Kenyans. Despite this, decisions on water allocation, investment, and management have historically been made without a complete, integrated statistical picture of how water moves through the economy.
The accounts show that Kenya’s water system is under growing pressure. Managed water abstraction is increasing across productive sectors, a significant share of abstraction occurs without valid permits, and groundwater use is rising without the monitoring systems needed to assess whether it is sustainable.
KNBS has committed to producing these accounts on an annual basis and to improving their quality and coverage with each successive edition.
