This data was collected through a survey of households in one subcounty of Kitui County Kenya with questions relating to water supply, welfare and living conditions. The survey was funded by the US government (USAID) Sustainable WASH Systems project in partnership with Kitui County Government and UNICEF. The sample consisted of 1457 households selected by random sampling of 40 households per village across the study area.The Sustainable WASH Systems Learning Partnership is a global USAID cooperative agreement to identify locally-driven solutions to the challenge of developing robust local systems capable of sustaining water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) service delivery.

A team of local enumerators used tablets to administer the survey. Data collection was conducted using questionnaires pre-loaded onto Android tablets. Given the low population densities of 11 to 54 people per square kilometre on a 4,769 km2 mass study area, all the villages in the subcounty were first plotted on a 10 km grid map and a strategy developed on how to sample the households. The villages revealed a non-uniform spread in the study area. It was therefore agreed to randomly sample at least 40 households around each village. Daily quality control was coordinated by a locally-based research manager with support from the Oxford team. The research was registered with Government of Kenya’s National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation and complied with the University of Oxford’s research and ethics guidelines to ensure informed consent, confidentiality and no harm to all participants. The survey was conducted by the University of Oxford with support from Rural Focus Ltd in collaboration with Kitui County Governments’ Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Livestock Development, and the Government of Kenya’s Ministry of Education and County Ministry of Health, and UNICEF-Kenya.