Addressing Health & Equality Issues in Kenya

In the vast, arid land of northwestern Kenya lies the Kakuma Refugee Camp, home to around 300,000 people who have fled conflict and instability in South Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and others. The number of residents continues to rise every year. Yet this place meant to be a refuge for survival — has become a place where simply staying alive has become an everyday struggle.

In March this year, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) was forced to cut food rations drastically due to a severe funding shortage. Refugees who need at least 9 kg of food per person per month now receive only about 3 kg. Handed out are only rice, lentils, and a small amount of cooking oil.

Lilian (pseudonym), a South Sudanese mother raising three children, says, “These days, I can only feed my children once a day. They are so hungry they have no choice but to cry themselves to sleep.” The small cash assistance that once allowed families to buy vegetables or meat at the local market has also been suspended, pushing many children into malnutrition.

Local health centers are now overwhelmed by a sharp rise in cases of acute malnutrition. In April 2025 alone, 146 children received treatment and 15 of them did not survive. Mothers wait in exhaustion, holding their babies in their arms, watching over children too weak from hunger to cry. “It’s heartbreaking to see lives that could be saved slipping away because we don’t have enough therapeutic food,” one medical staff member says.

A severe water shortage, reduced food rations, and policy changes have pushed field operations to their limits

Peace Winds continues to support water and sanitation in Kakuma Refugee Camp through the construction and maintenance of water supply systems, installation of toilets, and promotion of hygiene practices. In terms of water provision alone, the organization manages more than 20 boreholes across the camp and its surrounding areas, pumping groundwater and distributing it through pipelines to over 300,000 people. In Kakuma’s extremely arid environment—where daytime temperatures can approach 40°C—access to sufficient water is a critical matter of survival.

Recently, however, a growing shortage of funds has made it increasingly difficult to maintain this lifeline. There is not enough fuel to power the borehole pumps, nor sufficient staff or replacement parts to repair damaged water pipes and boreholes. As a result, since April 2025, the per capita daily water supply has dropped to just 15 liters, far below the minimum humanitarian standard of 20 liters per day in a post-emergency situation.

A Peace Winds staff member on site reports, “When we can’t repair the water pipes immediately, water stops flowing, which leads to further pipe damage and even less access for the community.” Why are the pipes being destroyed? Water scarcity affects every aspect of daily life, and with both food rations and cash assistance suspended, some desperate refugees have begun puncturing pipelines to steal water, which they then sell for a small amount of money.

Under these harsh conditions, an increasing number of refugees — unable to bear the hunger — are returning from Kenya to South Sudan. Since June, more than 9,300 people have left Kakuma. Yet even in South Sudan, instability, inter-ethnic conflict, and soaring prices make safe and sustainable living conditions far from guaranteed. “Here we starve, but if we return, we might die,” one refugee said. Many are now faced with the impossible choices.

Adding to the challenges, a “Differentiated Assistance” system introduced in August 2025 categorizes refugee households by their level of vulnerability and adjusts food distribution accordingly. Although designed to prioritize limited resources for those most in need, many refugees deemed “self-reliant” and cut off from aid have no stable source of income and are now facing severe food insecurity.

The combined effects of food ration cuts and policy changes have placed the situation in Kakuma at a breaking point. More and more people are falling through the cracks of the aid system, torn between hunger and the uncertainty of returning home.

While the Kenyan government promotes social development that includes refugees and works to build structures for integration, no one has yet presented a fundamental solution to the reality that even basic services can no longer be adequately provided.

In the midst of this deepening crisis, Peace Winds continues to act —mobilizing all available resources, funding, and networks to sustain support across three critical areas: water, sanitation, and food security.

A Peace Winds staff member on the ground shared,
“Even when we secure water and support families in growing vegetables in their home gardens, hunger still advances faster than our assistance can reach. It is so important for people to understand the situation we are facing now.”

Peace Winds is providing a range of sanitation support for both refugees and host communities in Turkana County, Republic of Kenya—specifically within Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. Among these efforts is a solid waste management project that supports the collection, sorting, and recycling of the roughly 184 tons of waste that are produced every day. Since 2023, Peace Winds has been implementing this project with funding from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project has included establishing communal collection points and transfer stations for temporary waste storage. Since 2024, we have been working to build a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) where collected waste will be sorted and processed for transfer to recycling companies.

In addition, Peace Winds has been conducting training for local community groups responsible for primary waste collection, empowering residents to separate and collect their own waste. A system is also being developed to encourage residents to financially contribute to the cost of waste collection by fostering community awareness and engagement in environmental improvement.

However, with the refugee population in Kakuma and Kalobeyei reaching 300,000 as of March 2025, administrative support is essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of waste management systems. In 2023, the area was reorganized as the Kakuma Municipality, and improving waste management has become a critical issue for such a large population.

In May 2025, Peace Winds invited the Deputy Governor of Turkana County and the Head of the Kakuma Municipality to Osaki Town in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan—a town known for achieving an 80% recycling rate of all its garbage. This visit aimed to help Kenyan officials reflect on the vital role of local governments in waste management. Over four days, the delegation made a courtesy visit to the town’s mayor, toured landfills, recycling centers and composting facilities, and observed the waste-sorting activities of local residents and elementary school students. They also attended lectures by facility experts.

The Kenyan officials were particularly impressed by Osaki Town’s commitment to resource circulation, such as converting used cooking oil into fuel for heavy machinery at the recycling center and developing technologies in collaboration with private companies to recycle used diapers into new ones. The officials also took note of the community-building aspects of waste-sorting, such as intergenerational interactions—including with elderly residents—born out of neighborhood clean-up and separation efforts. These experiences offered valuable insights into what local governments can do.

Far from assuming such initiatives are only possible in Japan, the Kenyan delegation expressed strong motivation to replicate similar efforts in their own country, saying, “We want to create jobs for Kenyan youth by utilizing resources like Osaki Town does.” Passionate discussions followed on how to adapt and implement these practices in Kenya.

Peace Winds will continue to follow up with these government officials as they return to Kenya and support the realization of a circular society in Kakuma—where waste is sorted, turned into resources, and those resources are effectively reused.

In late August 2025, the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) will be held in Yokohama, Japan. Peace Winds plans to host a side event to share the outcomes of its initiatives in Kenya. Although TICAD is a government-level conference, Peace Winds, as an NGO, will also highlight how it is working in collaboration with the Kenyan government to help people there live with dignity.