Vihiga County received a drone from the EU‑FAO Digital Land Governance Programme, aimed at strengthening geospatial capacity and enabling real‑time data collection for the county and its peers.

The equipment will be used for agricultural and land‑use planning, disaster preparedness, infrastructure development, environmental monitoring, natural resource management and service delivery.

FAO Country Representative in Kenya Farayi Zimudzi said the handover represents an investment in better data, planning and decision‑making across Kenya’s 47 county governments.

The programme has already equipped GIS laboratories in 39 counties, trained more than 241 technical officers and created a network of over 1,700 County GIS Departmental Champions.

FAO cautioned that technology alone will not improve planning unless counties allocate resources to maintain GIS units and accelerate GIS‑based County Physical and Land Use Development Plans.

Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo noted that the county has already used its GIS system for planning and intends to train specialists who can support the other 46 counties, potentially turning the drone into a shared mapping resource.

The governor added that the drone will aid disaster preparedness and climate‑resilience efforts, including monitoring risks linked to extreme weather events.