On Tuesday, 18th August 2026, the Kenyan GRAPE programme of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), in collaboration with St. Paul’s University in Limuru, convened a Water conference under the theme: Flowing toward dignity: Rethinking Water Access as Economic Policy.
The conference brought together representatives of the university, churches, Muslims, civil society and water users’ organisations to discuss how to achieve access to 50l of clean and safe water per person per day or the equivalent cash compensation by 2028 – the goal of the GRAPE advocacy campaign in Kenya. Despite the last-minute cancellation by the Cabinet Secretary of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation, the conference went ahead with full force and engaged in intense discussions on the challenges of water in Kenya. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Esther Mombo, set the tone in her welcoming remarks, urging the participants to move swiftly and earnestly with this campaign, as it is often said that ’the wars of the next century will be about water’.
The conference then heard from the GRAPE team members about their participatory research in Kibera and Narok, where people reported on the daily struggles to pay for water in informal settlements or collect water from rivers in rural areas. The team highlighted the impact of this situation on the girl child and on women who face negative consequences in their education, economic activities, and safety when collecting water.
The team highlighted that access to water is not charity, a privilege, or a luxury, but a right, and that every $1 invested in water yields $4 in economic returns through productivity gains, averted health costs, restored school attendance, and women’s labour released.
The GRAPE team elaborated on the legal situation in Kenya, where access to water is a constitutional right; however, it is not quantified and hence not enforceable, meaning a right without a floor cannot be enforced, budgeted, or audited. Therefore, the GRAPE campaign calls for a policy that every Kenyan should receive 50 litres of clean and safe drinking water per person per day, unconditionally. Where the government cannot yet deliver the 50 litres directly, it provides equivalent cash compensation so that people can purchase their water, or to summarise in the catchy phrase: Water where it can flow, cash where it currently cannot — a right either way.
Last but not least, the Grape team presented their newly published Contextual Bible Study material and the theology of water, motivating churches to spearhead this campaign from a biblical justice perspective.
The conference marks a milestone in this campaign, as it now directly engages with the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation on a Statement of Intent to work jointly to achieve this goal. The GRAPE programme has approached the government to establish a joint commission to examine the financial implications of making this right a reality for all Kenyans and to map out the political process to achieve it.
View the recording of the conference: www.youtube.com/live/XvSrcB56vZg
