Continuous soil microclimate and meteorological measurements from the respective maize and potato plots in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Soil volumetric water content (m³ m⁻³) and temperature (°C) were measured at plot level using TEROS 11 sensors (METER Group, Pullman, WA, USA); soil oxygen concentration (%) was measured using SO-411 optical sensors (METER Group). Meteorological variables – including precipitation and atmospheric pressure were recorded by two ATMOS 41 all-in-one weather stations (METER Group). All sensors logged at 15-minute resolution via ZL6 Pro data loggers with integrated solar panels and automatic cloud backup. Data span from March 2024 to March 2025 at the University of Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya (0°34′45″N, 35°18′22″E; 2,213 m a.s.l.). Sensors were deployed across four instrumented treatment blocks. Data were collected to characterise the environmental drivers, and particularly soil moisture dynamics and precipitation timing that govern nitrogen cycling and greenhouse gas emissions, and to provide the covariate inputs required for machine-learning-based N₂O emission risk prediction. The fully solar-powered, cloud-connected sensor network was designed to operate autonomously under the infrastructure constraints typical of sub-Saharan African field research. All timestamps are in East Africa Time (UTC+3). This dataset is part of a multi-variable collection archived at PANGAEA.