Magadi women drop the donkeys as dormant water pipeline flows again after 15 years

Anglican Church Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapiti inspects the restored Sampu water pipeline at Magadi. [Peterson Githaiga, Standard]

Hundreds of residents in Magadi, Kajiado West sub-county, celebrated the restoration of a water pipeline that had been non-functional for 15 years, ending decades of hardship that had forced women to trek up to 20 kilometres in search of water.

The 78-kilometre Sampu water pipeline, originally built in the 1950s, collapsed and cut off fresh water supply from the Nkuruman water towers to several villages along its route, pushing communities to rely on unsafe shallow water pans and seasonal rainfall.