CETRAD

Since 1976 in Nanyuki

The Centre for Transformative Research and Development (CETRAD) is a registered trust based in Nanyuki, Laikipia County, at the foot of Mount Kenya. For over five decades, our work has combined research, monitoring and multi-stakeholder engagement across Kenya’s agrarian and pastoral landscapes. Farming, pastoralism and wildlife across the landscapes depend on water from upstream, including Mount Kenya, but climate change and competing demands for natural resources are putting this system under growing pressure. Our long record anchors work that runs from research to policy development and implementation on the ground, with communities, public institutions and development partners. Established in 1976 as an academic exchange programme between the University of Nairobi and the University of Bern, Switzerland CETRAD evolved into the Laikipia Research Programme in 1985. In 2002, it became a fully-fledged bilateral research and training Centre established by the Governments of Kenya and Switzerland. In 2026, CETRAD was registered as a trust in Kenya, becoming the legal successor to the 2002 Centre. CETRAD’s Board of Trustees represents the University of Nairobi, the University of Bern, and Kenya’s Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation.

Counties, water resource user associations, and research partners use the rainfall, river flow, and land records CETRAD keeps for the Ewaso Ng'iro basin.