Charting a Path for the Spencer Line

The Spencer Line escarpment, home to an estimated 50,000 households along the western edge of the Great Rift Valley, has long sustained the communities of Elgeyo Marakwet County. But deforestation, unsustainable farming, and encroachment have taken their toll, a toll made painfully clear by the landslides that struck Chesongoch and Kipkenda in late 2025.

In response, Save Kenya Water Towers (SKWT), with support from FAO under the AFR100 Landscape Restoration Initiative, is developing the Spencer Line Management Plan (SLMP), part of a wider community-led restoration programme for the escarpment. Before any fieldwork could begin, SKWT set out to earn shared ownership of the process.

Opening the conversation

In April 2026, SKWT met with Governor H.E. Wisley Rotich and county leadership to introduce the programme. The Governor welcomed the initiative and directed county departments to lend their full support. A parallel meeting with County Commissioner David Koskei secured national government backing, with Deputy County Commissioner Herbert A. Kombo appointed as SKWT's liaison.

It was in these early conversations that county leaders raised a point that would shape everything to follow: Kerio Valley, now recognised as its own subcounty, sits at the heart of the Spencer Line and needed to be part of the process from the start.

Bringing institutions together

SKWT then convened county departments and national agencies, among them the Kenya Forest Service, NEMA, and the Kenya Red Cross, to map out roles and agree a shared workplan. Stakeholders reviewed and approved the methodology, nominated focal persons, and echoed the call to fully include Kerio Valley given its exposure to landslide risk.

These early steps built something the technical work alone could not: a coordinated platform, owned by county government, national agencies, and community leadership together. With that foundation in place, attention now turns to the communities who call the Spencer Line home, whose knowledge and priorities will shape the plan ahead.