NATIONAL IRRIGATION AUTHORITY

Our Mandate

Part III, Section 7(1) of the irrigation Act establishes the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) whose functions are;

  • Develop and improve irrigation infrastructure for national or public schemes;
  • Provide irrigation support services to private medium and smallholder schemes, in consultation and cooperation with county governments and other stakeholders;
  • Provide technical advisory services to irrigation schemes in design, construction supervision, administration, operation and maintenance under appropriate modalities, including agency contracts, as may be elaborated in regulations to this act.
  • Undertake irrigation development, including infrastructure, in national or public and smallholder schemes, including schemes which traverse or straddle more than one county;
  • In consultation with county governments, facilitate formation and strengthening of irrigation water users’ associations at scheme level for operation, maintenance and management;
  • In consultation with the county governments and other stakeholders facilitate formation and strengthening of scheme management committees at scheme level for management of the schemes;
  • In consultation with the county governments and other stakeholders facilitate formation and strengthening of dispute resolution committees at scheme level for the resolution of disputes relating to scheme management;
  • In consultation with the cabinet secretary, the cabinet secretary for the time being responsible for finance, and the county governments raise funds for the development of infrastructure in national, public and smallholder schemes under appropriate mechanisms, including under agency contracts;
  • In consultation with the cabinet secretary and county governments, co-ordinate and plan settlement on national or public irrigation schemes, as well as schemes which traverse or straddle more than one county and determine the number of settlers thereof;
  • Provide technical advisory services on a commercial basis, on irrigation water management, including water harvesting and storage, and waste water recycling for agricultural use to all schemes under appropriate modalities, including agency contracts;
  • In collaboration with county governments, the private sector, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, provide technical advisory services to community and smallholder irrigation schemes concerning design, construction supervision, administration and maintenance of irrigation infrastructure under appropriate modalities, including agency contracts;
  • Facilitate linkages between and among the national government and county governments, private sector, civil society organizations, communities and other stakeholders for the provision of support services to irrigation water user associations;
  • Provide land in national irrigation schemes for public purposes;
  • In collaboration with county governments and other stakeholders, promote the marketing, safe storage and processing of crops, animal and fish products grown or produced on national and other irrigation schemes and to liaise in this regard with other responsible state agencies and organizations;
  • In collaboration with county government and other stakeholders and government agencies carry out periodic researches to determine and make recommendation on fair prices for crops, animals and fish products grown or produced on national and other irrigation schemes;
  • Prepare and submit to the cabinet secretary, through the principal secretary, annual and other periodic reports concerning the performance of its mandate and functions; and
  • Advise the cabinet secretary, through the principal secretary, on any matter in connection with the development, maintenance, expansion and availability of irrigation support services.

Core Values

  • Professionalism – We exhibit professional conduct and sound judgement in standards and service; we uphold objectivity and are focused on issues.

  • Teamwork – We believe that the journey to greatness is taken along with others with whom we must keep work with one step at a time (Everyone has something to bring to the table).

  • Equity – We uphold fairness in our operations for all irrespective of gender, disability, religion and socio-cultural background.

  • Integrity – We demonstrate the highest ethical standards in all aspects of our work complete with transparency, deep commitment to our customers, every community we serve and amongst ourselves. We thrive in disclosure while upholding clarity and simplicity in all our endeavors.

  • Innovation – we think creatively and differently to make a difference and apply innovative thinking and diversity to everything we do. We remain open to new ideas; always looking for new ways to improve processes and seeking of sustainable solutions for stakeholders and partners.

  • Quality – We value excellence in service provision, leadership, people development, managing long team relationship. Our strategies shall aim at continual improvements in our systems, products and services diversification, reliability, accessibility and affordability.

  • Passion – We are passionate about what we do and who we are every day, who we do it for and enjoy doing it. It’s much easier to focus our passion towards developing solutions to achieving the Authority’s mandate and develop a much more cohesive team.

Mandate & Core Values