Kiambu County has successfully concluded an intensive three-day Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Champions Training aimed at revolutionising spatial planning, enhancing digital data collection, and improving public reporting mechanisms across the county.
The comprehensive capacity-building exercise was conducted under the framework of the Digital Land Governance Programme (DLGP), while being spearheaded by the Council of Governors (CoG) in close partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the European Union (EU).
Throughout the workshop, officers representing every county department engaged in interactive learning modules.
On Wednesday, which was the final day, the training featured extensive, hands-on practical on both the Council of Governors portal and the Kiambu County web portal, equipping participants with essential practical skills in spatial mapping, digital data entry, and analytical reporting to modernize daily departmental workflows.
Officially presiding over the closing ceremony, Kiambu Lands, Housing, Physical Planning and Municipalities County Executive Committee Member (CECM) Ms. Salome Wainaina, expressed sincere gratitude to FAO and the rest of the international partners for their continued technical and financial support.
Highlighting the rapidly growing demand for precision surveying and structured spatial planning, Ms. Wainaina called for increased investment in professional GIS personnel across the county.
She further appealed to development partners to support the institutional upgrading of Kiambu County’s central GIS laboratory with modern, state-of-the-art mapping equipment and geospatial technology.
Ms. Wainaina challenged the participants to immediately apply their newly acquired expertise to eliminate gaps in departmental documentation.
She noted that many of Kiambu County’s remarkable development achievements remain unnoticed by the public and stakeholders, simply because they are not adequately documented or digitally archived in public databases.
The participants commended the organisers for the impactful training initiative and unanimously requested follow-up advanced training sessions to foster deeper technical mastery, greater institutional focus, and enhanced practical application of emerging GIS technologies in their daily public service duties.
As newly designated GIS Champions, these officers will now serve as digital ambassadors within their respective departments and will be tasked with leading peer-to-peer staff training, standardising data collection procedures, and embedding evidence-based decision-making across all sectors of Kiambu County.
By Hellen Lunalo
