On Friday May 23, 2025, Isuzu East Africa Foundation launched a KShs.7 million water project at Kiwalwa Mixed Secondary School in Mboghoni Ward, Taita Taveta County, targeting to benefit over 2,000 residents in 500 households.
The project was part of Isuzu East Africa Foundation’s Corporate Social Impact initiatives in partnership with Davis & Shirtliff and aimed at alleviating chronic water shortages that have plagued the area in the past.
It also aims to address poor sanitation and hygiene standards that have in the past contributed to outbreaks of waterborne diseases, enhance school attendance rates for girls who spend long hours fetching water for domestic use, and boost the local economy whose activities have in the past been severely limited due to chronic water shortages.
Speaking during the handover of the project yesterday, Isuzu East Africa Managing Director and Chair of the Board Rita Kavashe, who also chairs the Foundation, described it as a major milestone for the school and local community.
“I was raised here, I’m a product of Kiwalwa Primary School and I’m thankful for the foundation it gave me to be the person I am today,” said Ms Kavashe, adding that this is the same background she wished to bestow upon other children from the village as an inspiration to rise to top leadership locally and globally.
She urged students to aim higher and seek to achieve greater things in life, while pledging to support residents to address poor academic results that continued to plague the village and Taita Taveta County as a whole.
On the local economy, she urged villagers to plant fruit trees and other crops to achieve food security and improve their livelihoods.
The project comprised construction of a 60,000-litre water storage and distribution system, and houses for two technicians who will be handling maintenance and repair. It also included drilling of a new borehole and installation of a solar-powered water pump.
The event also saw the donation of dignity packs to over 600 vulnerable girls from 5 local schools within the community, which will last each of them a whole year, to address menstrual poverty, improve school attendance, and promote dignity and confidence among the girls.
Lauding the project, Kiwalwa Mixed Secondary School principal Ms. Muteti said it had relieved them from the financial burden of paying for water, which they would use “to do a little farming” and “plant fruit trees.”
Mboghoni Ward Member of County Assembly Halifa Taraya pledged to donate money to fund the digging of pipes to take the water to people’s homes, while describing the project as godsent and a blessing to residents.
Corporate and Sustainability Manager Dr Michael Musyoka said the school previously suffered from lack of water due to the inadequate capacity of the 10,000-litre tank and borehole that was there previously.
The new borehole was 40-cubic meters per hour and had been sunk to a depth of over 100 meters compared to the local average of 30 meters.
Davis & Shirtliff Regional Manager Michael Wajwang’a said the solar pump was a high efficiency 11Kw capacity unit linked to 34 545W solar panels to push 40,000 liters of water per hour to the storage tanks.
“The project uses clean energy, which means there are no greenhouse emissions,” he said, adding that the initiative met four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.