President William Ruto has announced a Sh871 billion plan to bring an additional 1.5 million acres of farmland under irrigation by 2035, backed by the construction of 50 mega dams and more than 1,200 smaller water storage facilities.
The plan is aimed at reducing Kenya’s dependence on unpredictable rainfall, making food production more reliable and raising farmers’ incomes. Ruto said 61 per cent of the required investment would come from the private sector.
Speaking at the Agriculture and Food Security Transformation Summit at Nairobi’s Jamhuri Park on October 8, 2026, the President said the expansion of irrigation would be central to transforming agriculture and strengthening food security.
“Rain is a blessing, but it cannot be our plan. Water must be our plan,” he said.
Ruto said access to reliable water would give farmers more predictable harvests, making it easier for them to secure financing and plan their production.
“Water makes harvests predictable. Predictable harvests make farmers bankable,” he said.
He said preparations had already started for the first 12 mega dams under the wider plan to build 50 across the country.
“We want to have the first 50 mega dams,” Ruto said.
The President said the National Infrastructure Fund would finance key infrastructure in transport and logistics, energy and water, with water storage and irrigation taking priority in efforts to transform agriculture.
The government also plans to build more than 1,200 medium, small and micro dams, including at least 10 in northern Kenya. Ruto said the Galana Rural Dam alone is expected to provide water for 150,000 acres.
He said the irrigation drive would help shift farming away from what he called “guesswork” caused by reliance on uncertain rainfall.
“We began to free our farmers, and that is my agenda going forward,” he said.
Ruto also outlined plans to raise the value of agricultural exports by expanding local processing. He said only one in 10 agricultural exports is currently processed, with the government seeking to raise that share to one in two.
“We will brand Kenyan tea, roast Kenyan coffee, spin Kenyan cotton, and turn Kenyan leather,” he said.
According to the President, greater production and local processing would create more opportunities for manufacturers, generate jobs and raise incomes.
“Higher yields lower the cost of food and leave money in household pockets,” he said.
Despite the progress he outlined, Ruto acknowledged gaps in the agriculture sector. He said coffee production remains at only a third of the country’s target, while less than 10 per cent of tea leaves are processed locally.
He also said commercial banks allocate only 3 per cent of their lending to agriculture, while one in six households remains food poor.
“Those who feed Kenya must never be the ones to go hungry,” Ruto said.
The President said the government would judge the success of its agricultural programmes by whether farmers become more productive, rather than simply by the number of farmers registered on government platforms.
“We will count farmers who become more productive, not farmers registered,” he said.