Peter Muraya

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL: Environmental Studies

DEPARTMENT: Environmental Studies and

Community Development

Education for Sustainable Development

Discuss issues that pose the greatest challenge to

sustainable development in your county: Nakuru

County, Kenya.
Sustainable development refers to development that meets the needs of the

present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation in

meeting their own needs (UN Document, online). In Nakuru County, there are

challenges that compromise the achievement of sustainable development. Nakuru

County is located in Rift Valley Region. It is an agricultural rich county and pride

with a variety of natural resources like lakes, mountain escarpments and diverse

cultures. Among these challenges includes high population, over exploitation of

resources, poverty, inequality of distribution of resources, poor governance and

urbanization.

• High population

The population of Nakuru County is about 1.6 million people (Eston Ngugi, et al.

2013). The total fertility rate of the county is about 3.14 children per woman. This

indicate that the population of Nakuru County is bound to grow bigger and bigger.

At the time population is growing at a higher rate than the regeneration rate

available resources for human use. According to Robert Malthus, population is

growing at a geometric rate while resources (means of life) e.g. food are growing

at an arithmetic rate. This means that human will out do means of life leading to

scarcity. Other resources like fossil fuel are replenishing with population Increase.

With the growing population i.e. in 1989 the population was 0.85 million, 1999 it

was 1.19 million and in 2009 it was 1.60 people (Nakuru County, online) and is

still bound to grow as shown in the trends, pressure will be exerted on the

available resources which are characterized as scarce resulting into an

unsustainable use of the resources in fulfilling our immediate needs. For example
Mau Forest which have been encroached for human settlement and agriculture to

fulfill the basic human wants, shelter and food.

• Over Exploitation

Human beings have the greed to produce more with the resources that they have.

Over exploitation of resources will result into the reduction of quality and

quantity of the resources. For example when you plant more crops than a piece of

land can hold, when you farm a piece of land many times without giving it time to

recover its nutrient, you end up degrading the quality of soil hence its fertility.

Over exploitation can also result into environmental degradation. In Lake

Naivasha, it was observed that the fisher persons there were over fishing which

endangered some species of fish in the lake. Over exploitation can threaten some

resources available for the future generation to extinction therefore having no

impact to the future generation.

• Top bottom approach of implementing sustainable development

Sustainable development involves many different stakeholders operating at

different levels scale from the international level, national, county to village level.

These levels needs to be integrated in making decision in order to come up with

the best approach of implementing sustainable development to the community

which will be affected. The way a certain community views a system may be

different from the way another community view the same system (James

Peterson, online). In decision making process therefore should be inclusive of the

community in making decision of in order to come up with the best approach of

implementing sustainable development concept at that particular community

believes and norms. In Nakuru County, most of the decision are made and

decided for the larger community by the governor and his administration. This

impose a challenge because the communities are not willing participate or

because it’s not its taste to do things that way. The communities feel things are

being imposed on them and they don’t own the sustainable development projects.

Taking sustainable development goal number six, ensure water and sanitation for

all, as an example, there need to be integrated approach of all levels of planning

and management and in tackling this goal for effectiveness and sustainability.

Insufficient involvement of communities’ in decision making process results into

unsustainability in development.

• Illiteracy

In areas where there are high levels of illiteracy, people have fewer development

options and most of their development options are not sustainable. Illiteracy in

addition will make people lack the knowhow of implementing sustainable

development goals at village level. With education, people are equipped with

more knowledge and their capacity to result into development project that are

sustainable is very high. For sustainable development to be achieved, they must

be localized to the lowest level and to the people who will be affected on the

implementation of sustainable development goals. In some constituencies in

Nakuru County where there is high illiteracy level, unsustainable methods of

production and development are used. Where a variety of sustainable

development options are presented by experts, they lack the cognitive capacity to
implement them. A total of 28% of the residents have a secondary education or

above with Nakuru Town having the greatest share of 49% and three times higher

than that of Kuresoi North Constituency. A total of 55% of Nakuru County

residents have primary education with Kuresoi North Constituency having the

largest share with 64% of residents having primary education. Some 17% of

residents in Nakuru County have no education at all. Unfortunately, my

constituency, Njoro, leads with 20% share of the residents without education

(Eston Ngugi, et al. 2013). This to me explains the unsustainability in Njoro. In

some community they reject these development programs for example the

geothermal power from creator ward.

• Poverty

Poverty has led to unsustainable use of the resource. Despite the recent graduation

of Kenya from low income country to middle income country, there are still many

people in Nakuru County who live below the poverty line (1.12$/day) and others

just above the poverty line. The survival of these people depend solely on natural

resources for example use of firewood and charcoal for cooking and use of

kerosene for lighting houses. These actions of the poor people to survive on

resources encourage more deforestation, and forest degradation since their market

is already available from the large mass of the people living in poverty because

they are cheap and readily available. The Mau Forest in Elburgon, Nakuru

County, is facing a challenge to the attainability of sustainability from high level

of deforestation for charcoal and timber.

• Poor Governance
Leadership is key in attaining sustainable development. A leader governs

resources for sustainability through proportionate share of resources to all

beneficiaries. Due to poor governance in Nakuru County, leaders are sharing the

resources, targeted directly or indirectly to sustainable development, to a few

hands. Women and persons with disabilities were complaining that they are not

getting their proportion in Nakuru County for example in employment

opportunities yet they depend on that employment opportunity for sustainable

consumption and for sustainable development and community level. Due to fund

embezzlement, funds have ended up in the hands of a few rich individuals and

nepotism becoming the basis for employment. The communities in other

situations are not made aware of the funds for sustainable development projects.

These funds get back to the donors and the funders because it has not been used in

any way. This is as a result of poor governance. Funds targeted to the community

for water projects through Water Resources Management Authority (WRMA) get

back to the donors and the funders because communities don’t come for them

while yet they suffer from low quality and low quantity water. The problem lies in

the WRMA because they don’t sensitize about the fund available and the

procedure to follow. The communities are not aware of such programs and funds.

• Urbanization

Productive pieces of land are converted into urban centers. Agricultural lands are

converted into settlement and industrial areas. This might seem currently a good

development idea but in the long run it will not be sustainable. Non-productive

lands which are suitable for such purposes are avoided. This is due to poor
planning. The possibilities are that in future we will be depending on food supply

from other counties and even from other countries nation wise. There is

immigration from rural areas to urban centers. Few labor for the development of

the rural areas. Urban areas greatly depend on food supply from rural areas. If the

labor in rural areas is relocated to urban areas, there will be less food production

and the county will not be sustainable any longer.

CONCLUSION

The achievements of sustainable development in Nakuru County are not assured

from the challenges that face its achievements. From poor governance, poverty,

illiteracy, high population, urbanization, over exploitation and top down

implementation approach will hinder the achievement of sustainable

development. For sustainable development to be achieved in Nakuru County,

methods to mitigate the challenges have to be found. The international, national,

county to village level of implementation must be integrated so that sustainable

development can be achieved and be implemented in away it will benefit all

levels of governance.
REFERENCES

Eston Ngugi, Samuel Kipruto, & Paul Samoei, (2013). Exploring Kenya’s

Inequality: Pulling Apart or Pooling Together. Kenya National Bureau of

Statistics: Nairobi, Kenya & Society for International Development : Nairobi,

Kenya .

UN Document, (online). Our Common Future: Towards Sustainable

Development. Retrieved: www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm (17th/04/2017)

County Goverment of Nakuru (online). About Nakuru. Retrieved:

www.nakuru.go.ke/about/

Nakuru County (2013). Nakuru Integrated Development Plan. Retrieved:

www.nakuru.go.ke/... (17/04/2017)

Nakuru County (online). Population: The population Development of Nakuru.

Retrieved: www.citypopulation-de/php/kenya-adminphp?admin2id=32

(20th/04/2017)

James, Patterson (online). 3 Challenges Facing the UN's Sustainable Development

Goals. Retrieved: www.weforum.org.agenda/2015/08... (20/04/2017)