Evidence before equipment.
A device is not a diagnosis. We assess before we specify, so the equipment matches the scheme rather than the catalogue.
About Us
A new firm with a field record.
Trustline Water (Jenga Maji) was formed by WASH professionals who have spent their working lives inside county water services, utility billing and community schemes. We are new as a company. We are not new to the work.
The story
We built the practice around what actually gets handed over.
Between us, we have worked across 17 counties. On the STAWI programme we served as an implementing partner to Rural Water Management Solutions Kenya, supporting county governments and community schemes with baselines, capacity building, billing onboarding and smart metering. Across Western Kenya we were contracted as professional consultants to implement smart billing systems and meters, and to build governance capacity in scheme committees.
Those assignments belong to the institutions that commissioned them and the partners we worked with. What we brought was the professional delivery: the assessment, the training, the system, the handover. Trustline Water (Jenga Maji) is how we carry that practice forward under our own name.
We are deliberately small and deliberately honest about what we can evidence. If a project is not ours to claim, we will say whose it is.
What we hold to
Three rules that shape every engagement.
Governance before automation.
A billing system cannot fix a bank mandate nobody owns. We settle roles and decision rights before we switch on software.
Handover, not dependency.
The measure of the work is what the scheme can run without us: a board that can explain the numbers, and a team that can close the month.
The frame we work in
Water services sit inside a clear regulatory frame.
Rural water is not a blank slate. The mandate, the money and the customer relationship are already assigned by law and by county practice. We work inside that frame; we do not replace it.
This is a working summary for orientation, not legal advice. Every
engagement is checked against the current Act, regulations and county
requirements.
- Water Act 2016
- Establishes the framework for water resources and water services, and assigns responsibility for water services to county governments.
- County governments
- The service authorities for water services in their counties, including rural and community schemes.
- WASREB
- The Water Services Regulatory Board regulates water services and licenses Water Service Providers.
- WRA
- The Water Resources Authority regulates water resources, permits and catchment-level institutions.
- WUAs, WSPs and CBOs
- The organisations that run schemes on the ground. We work with all three, and with the county that holds the mandate.
How we work
Assess, equip, govern, automate.
The sequence is deliberate. Skipping a step is how a scheme ends up with new equipment and the same old problem.
A short, structured baseline
ICT, records, revenue and governance, scored and costed with the scheme and the county.
Equipment with an owner
Specify, source or receive, tag, install and train the person who will be responsible for it.
Roles that can be checked
Board roles, bank mandate, tariff application, customer charter and the CBO-to-WUA transition.
Billing that reconciles
Meter reads, bills, M-Pesa and bank payments, reporting and customer communication.
Where we fit
A technical partner, not a replacement for the county.
The county holds the mandate. The scheme holds the relationship with the customer. We bring the assessment, the system and the training that help both do their job, then we step back.
We work with county water departments, utilities and WSPs, WUAs and CBOs, and the funders and NGOs that support them. We are comfortable as a sub-contracted specialist, an implementing partner or a direct adviser.
County governments
Baseline evidence, scheme readiness and reporting that stands up to scrutiny.
Water utilities and WSPs
Billing, metering, reconciliation and governance support for service delivery.
WUAs, CBOs and community schemes
Governance transition, record-keeping, customer communication and handover.
Funders, NGOs and implementing partners
Delivery support, verification and a clean handover to the institution that remains.
Work with us
Bring us in at the baseline, not after the equipment.
The earlier we see the scheme, the more useful the assessment is. Tell us what stage you are at and we will tell you what we would do next.