Community Engagement & Walk along Ngong River
The Canaan Estate Community Hall filled with the low murmur of people finding seats — boots scraping, someone testing a mic, rain still drying on the windows from the night before.
ETCO joined UN‑Habitat, the German Embassy, and the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC) to talk plainly about Nairobi’s rivers: what they are now, what they could be, and why the Nairobi Dam and its tributaries cannot be an afterthought.
263 voices, 400 metres of truth
Voices carried weight — from Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dr Martin Röw, UN‑Habitat’s Oumar Sylla, and NRC Chairperson Dr Pamela Olet, among others. The conversation was not charity theatre; it was agencies, community, and blunt reality in one room.
Then we walked. Four hundred metres along a stretch of the Ngong River system — enough to see plastic snagged in roots, enough to feel why partnership cannot be optional. By the end, the list of next steps sounded like work: coordinate, fund, enforce, return, repeat.
A river walk is not a nature stroll here. It is evidence. You smell it. You see how settlements and infrastructure meet water in ways that need patience, money, and political will — not blame aimed only at the poorest.
Two hundred and sixty-three community members participated and were sensitised — people who will go home and explain what they saw in their own words. That is how change survives a conference.
No single organisation can carry a river alone. If you care about clean water and honest cities, amplify this work, connect us with allies, and keep saying it — #LetTheRiversFlow — until budgets follow the talk.
Engaging Children through Feeding Program
Thanks to Chris and Jayne, ETCO had a warm feeding program for children at our new office—bringing joy, a good meal, and community together in Kibera.
Project Site Visit by Rotary Club of IPSWICH (USA) and Kikuyu (Kenya)
It was a great and engaging day of partnership and learning as we hosted the International Rotary Club of IPSWICH team, led by Environmental Lawyer Chris and his wife, Jane, Former President of Rotary Club of Kikuyu Hon. George Ngotho and Rotarian Yumbya for a visit to our project implementation sites. The visit provided an opportunity to review the project areas on the ground, discuss implementation priorities, and strengthen our shared commitment to sustainable environmental and community development. We also had the opportunity to visit the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC), where we were hosted by Commissioner Dr. Loice Kipkorir, a member of the Ngong River Committee. We explored opportunities to strengthen collaboration and align our work with the Nairobi Rivers Commission's Restoration Framework.
Community Capacity Building Training
We are currently participating in the ongoing PROVE (Public Space Governance Research, Observation, Validation and Experimentation) Pilot Programme, a four-month initiative by Public Space Networks (PSN) bringing together 11 community groups from Kamukunji and Korogocho. The programme focuses on strengthening community organizations’ capacity to manage, protect and improve public spaces as well as restoring rivers and it's ecosystems. The ongoing capacity-building training is helping CBOs and community organizations better understand the connection between public spaces, river restoration and ecosystem conservation, while exploring practical approaches and stronger collaboration among communities, government agencies, development partners and other stakeholders.