Post Covid-19 Situational Analysis of Water Sanitation and Hygiene in Public Primary Schools in Kiambu County, Kenya
Loading...
Date
2025-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Academic Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing (IAJHMN)
Abstract
Increased enrolment of children in public
schools since the inception of free primary
education in Kenya has been attributed to
the progressive pressure on the existing
water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)
facilities in schools. The main objective of
this study was to assess the status of WASH
services in Kikuyu sub-county primary
schools post Coronavirus Disease (COVID19) outbreak. The study applied a crosssectional study design to collect data for
both qualitative and quantitative analysis.
The target respondents were students in
grades 5 through 8 and the head teachers.
At the same time, the key informants were
the environment teachers and the subcounty director of education. The study
involved all thirty- two (32) public primary
schools in Kikuyu Sub-County where 393
respondents were selected through a
multistage stratified sampling technique
involving both boys and girls from different
schools in the sub-county and simple
random sampling in the selection of the
respondents per grade. A structured
questionnaire, a Key Informants Interview
guide, and a structured observation
checklist were used in data collection. This
study found that that Kikuyu Water
Company served the largest population of
schools, 64.5 percent as the main source of
water for schools in Kikuyu sub-county.
However, some schools (48.4 percent)
relied on shallow wells and a few (9.7
percent) were connected to the community
water project/schemes. Water storage
capacity in a majority of schools (56.3
percent) ranged between 30,000 and 60,000
litres, while 34.4 percent had less than
30,000 litres water storage and only 9.4
percent of the schools had a capacity of
more than 60,000 litres. It was established
that most of the schools, 77.4 percent used
treated drinking water while the rest, 23.6
percent did not. This study established that
since the onset of COVID-19, a majority of
schools developed and improved a
significant number of WASH facilities in
their respective schools. However, when
this study was undertaken, a majority of
schools (25, 78 percent) were still rated as
having limited water supply service.
Availability of sanitation facilities had
moderately improved since 53 percent of
the schools were rated as having limited
sanitation services. This calls for strategic
resource mobilization to equip schools with
more WASH facilities to reach WHO and
MoE standards to support primary
education. Future researchers should
explore further to identify the suitable
funding models for WASH services
development in schools and the best
practices in the operation and maintenance
of WASH facilities in public primary
schools
Description
Article
Keywords
Citation
Wanjiku, S. N., Akunga D., Kingori, I. (2025). Post covid-19 situational analysis of water sanitation and hygiene in public primary schools in Kiambu County, Kenya. International Academic Journal of Health, Medicine and Nursing, 2(2), 23-38