Abstract
The Kipkaren catchment is located in Nandi District of Rift Valley Province. The catchment covers three
administrative locations namely; Kipkaren, Ndalat and Ngenyilel locations .The Kipkaren River Basin is
part of Lake Victoria North Catchment Area (LVN) which is part of the Lake Victoria basin in Kenya. The
catchment has an area of about 3234.4km 2.The main township in the area is Eldoret town.
Kipkaren catchment was chosen as the study catchment in order to study the rainfall and streamflow
data. The study sets four objectives, the first is to derive the seasonal rainfall pattern of the catchment;
the second is to determine the average rainfall of the catchment; the third is to estimate the Storage
required for the catchment, and the fourth objective is to determine the flow duration and the low flow of
the catchment.
In this study, the project assess the storage and flow durations in the catchment for the water resource
development in the area. Kipkaren river would be useful for direct water supply. The information can also
be used in flood control, energy generation and industrial use since there are industries in the Eldoret
Region. Generally, land degradation in the upper parts of the catchment has caused frequent flooding in
the lower catchment, as reduced forest cover and an increase in agricultural lands have generally been
known to generate high surface runoff.
Analysis has also shown that the catchment has two rainy seasons: the short rain season from August to
October and the long rain season from– March to May. From low flow analysis it was found out that for
5% low flow will be 9.5 cumecs meaning that for 5% low flow < 9.5 cumecs, 95% of the time the flow will
be > 9.5 cumecs. Also from flow duration analysis it was gotten that for 5% low flow of 0.064cumecs, 5%
of the time flow < 0.064cumecs and
95% of the time flow > 0.064 cumecs.