Tessie Musalia leads drive for clean water, climate resilience

Ushiriki Wema, an economic empowerment foundation, has embarked on a programme aimed at supporting communities access clean and sustainable water across various parts of the country.

The programme targets provision of sustainable and localized water through drilling and installation of boreholes in institutions and targeted community environs.

Ushiriki Wema Chairperson Tessie Musalia, the spouse to Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, said the initiative is part of the broader vision of the foundation that targets environmental conservation, health and sanitation as one of the key pillars of its sustainable programmes.

“Through this project we are focusing on actively contributing to climate resilience and the boreholes will be a critical source of water that will reduce dependency on external water supplies thus help mitigate the impact of water shortages caused by the ever-changing climate patterns.” Said Tessie.

Ushiriki Wema, whose solely goal targets improving the well-being of the population, has pioneered the programme for its 2025 calendar at the Kenya Police Training College in Kiganjo, Nyeri County, on a journey that will spread in other police institutions before spreading to targeted community areas.

Madam Tessie said the first phase will include commissioning of boreholes at the National Police College, Embakasi A campus, the General Service Police Unit in Embakasi B campus, the General Service Police Unit Drive Camp along Outering road and the Utawala Academy in Embakasi Nairobi County.

“This pioneer programme runs under the partnership between Ushiriki Wema, the National Police Service and Regner Fu Capital Group and by March 2026 we want to have achieved our target,” noted Madam Tessie.

“This is also in line with President William Ruto’s call to combat environmental degradation and climate change. Two years ago we went into an environmental tree planting and conservation partnership with the National Police Service to support the realization of 30% forest and tree cover by planting at least 15 billion trees by the year 2032 as directed by the President.”

The Ushiriki Wema chairperson said the other than supporting domestic use, the water will be used for nurturing the trees and supporting afforestation efforts through continuous irrigation.

She was speaking at Kiganjo Police Training College in Nyeri County where 4,000 trees have already been planted under the ‘Kuzingatia Mazingira Yetu’ initiative and a further 11,000 both indigenous and fruit trees having been planted across the country.

“What stands out is that there is dire need for water for both the population and environmental conservation. The natural water sources are not enough as some have been depleted. A humongous task arising from the financial obligations and technical aspects call for a collective effort and coordination from both donors, partners and the government.” noted Madam Tessie.

She said they are engaging experts as they roll out the programme for the coordination to be seamless and achieve tangible and practical results.

“We are also banking on the good relationships with communities surrounding the police institutions in this first phase. We want the water to benefit a large population and the good will of the people will go a long way to also help us seek and get support from strategic development partners.” she explained.

Madam Tessie also called on stronger partnership between the police and communities saying it will go a long way in building more resilient and sustainable progress on matters that touch on environment, sanitation and health.