Uasin Gishu County is a highland plateau with an altitude that cascades gently from 2,700m above sea level at Timboroa in the East to about 1,500m above sea level at Kipkaren in the West.  The County can roughly be divided into two broad physiographic regions namely upper highlands and lower highlands, with Eldoret at 2,085 M above sea level (a.s.l.) forming the boundary between the regions. The topography is higher in the east and drops towards the western borders.  The plateau terrain in the County is friendly in construction of infrastructure such as roads and use of modern machinery for farming.

The County is divided into three zones namely; Upper highlands, Upper midlands and Lower highlands. Land use patterns in the County have been greatly influenced by these zones as adapt to the particular climatic conditions of an area. The geology of the County is dominated by tertiary volcanic rocks, with minimal commercially exploitable minerals. The four main soil types in the County are; Red Loam Soils occurring mainly in the northern part of the County in Turbo, Moi’s Bridge and Lower Moiben. Brown loam soils occur in high altitude areas of the County around Ainabkoi and Kaptagat. Red Clay Soils are found around Soy, Upper Moiben, and Nandi border areas. Brown Clay soils characterize the plateau and cover most of the Upper Lessos plateau areas. They are mostly shallow with murram close to the surface and are poorly drained. The soils are excellent for livestock rearing.

The County economy is majorly driven by agriculture. Large scale wheat and maize farming, dairy farming and horticulture favoured by fertile soils and regular rainfall are dominant. Besides agriculture, the County is home to some of the world-famous athletes who have boosted sports tourism. The County is also a manufacturing hub, with numerous industries and factories providing employment to thousands of its urban population. Some of the notable industries include Raiply Wood factory, Rivatex Textiles, Kenknit Textiles, Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) andas well as corn, and wheat factories all within Eldoret town. Other sectors such as commerce, transport, real estate and financial services are quite vibrant and significantly contribute to the County’s economy. Renowned wholesale and retail stores like Nakumatt, Uchumi, Tuskys, Naivas, Transmattresses, Eldomatt and Ukwala supermarkets have a presence in the County and some provide 24-hour shopping.

Administratively, the County is divided into six sub-counties namely Turbo, Soy, Ainabkoi, Moiben, Kesses, and Kapsaret as shown below. These are further subdivided into one hundred and twenty locations and ninety-seven sub-locations.

The administrative boundaries of the six sub-counties also double as the constituencies’ boundaries with 30 County assembly wards spread as follows Soy (7), Turbo (6), Moiben (5), Ainabkoi (3), Kapsaret (5) and Kesses (4). Politically, these units produce; a Governor, 30 Members of the County Assembly and eight members of parliament comprising of six from the constituencies, a senator, and a woman representative.

1. According to the 2009 Population and Housing Census, the total population
   of Uasin Gishu County stood at 894,179. At an inter-censual population growth rate of 3.8%, the total population is projected to grow to 1,211,853 by 2017. The population growth rate was higher than the national growth rate at 2.9%. The population density was 267 persons per sq. Km.
2. In 2012, the population age group between 0 to 14 years was 41.4% of the
   total; while the economically active age group of between 15 and 64 years
   accounted for 55.7% of the total. This implies that the County had a high
   dependency ratio and a high potential for labor force. The age group under one year was projected to grow from 29,175 in 2009 to 39,539 by 2017, while that aged between 2 and 5 years was expected to grow from 162,559 in 2009 to 220,311 by 2017.
3. The age group between 15 and 29 years comprises the youth; and was
   expected to grow from 284,278 to 385,273 by 2017. The majority of the youth in the County are dependents due to limited employment and income-generating opportunities. It is also an age group that is prone to exciting activity and possible vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. Skills development and employment creation are therefore priority areas of investment for this group.
4. Uasin Gishu has an extensive road network comprising of over 300 Kms of
   tarmac roads, 549 Kms of marrum and 377 Kms of earth roads. It also boasts 179 Kms of railway line with 8 railway stations. In addition, there is an inland container depot. The Moi International Airport and two airstrips are also located in Uasin Gishu easily making it the region’s service hub.
5. The County enjoyed about 95% mobile phone coverage which is provided by
   all the major service providers in Kenya. It also has 16 post offices, 4 sub-postal offices and nine licensed service couriers. It is connected to the fibre optic cable thus, giving it access to fast internet connectivity. The availability of these services confirms the Count’s potential for fast economic development and an attractive location for investment.
6. With regard to financial services the County has also witnessed significant
   It has a branch of the Central Bank of Kenya, 21 Commercial banks, 108 urban and 4 rural Saccos; and 5 major micro financing institutions.
   The education facilities are fairly developed with 2 public universities
   namely, Moi University and University of Eldoret. It also has 2 private universities and constituent colleges of major universities. There is also a National Polytechnic, a Technical Training Institute and several private commercial colleges. In terms of basic education, there are 576 ECD centres, 422 primary schools and 129 secondary schools.
7. Currently, 30 trading centers, 33 secondary schools and 12 health centers
   are not connected to electricity. Firewood remains the main source of cooking fuel accounting for 84% of the households. The over-dependence on firewood has negative implications on existing forests raising the need to plant trees in designated areas for wood fuel; and to connect more households to the National Grid. More effort is also required to connect electricity to all trading centers, schools and health facilities.
8. There are 102 trading centers with six of them being urban centers and
   The six are Burnt Forest, Matunda, Turbo, Moiben, Kesses and Kapsaret. Urban centers have emerged and grown without proper physical planning. Undesirable developments including informal settlements have mushroomed with their growth. The infrastructural facilities including roads and water supply are insufficient to meet the demands of the growing population.
9. Of the built houses in the County, 45.6% are mud-walled or used wood as the
   main walling material. Houses built using brick or blocks accounted for 25.4% while mud/slash cement accounted for 18.1%. The main roofing materials was corrugated iron sheets which accounted for 84.4%.
10. The Uasin Gishu County had an average land holding of 5 hectares in rural
    areas, and 0.25 of hectares within Eldoret Municipality. Land use practices varied considerably across the County. In 2012 there were 919 landless households distributed in various schemes, with Turbo settlement scheme accounting for 658 households; Jabali settlement Scheme 161 and Maili Tisa 100. Some of the landless are squatters living in gazetted forests; immigrants from other counties; and those who become landless by virtue of selling family land.
11. The average farm size in Uasin Gishu was 2-10 acres with a wide range of crop and livestock enterprises. The crop enterprises include food crops, cash/industrial crops and horticultural crops whereas the livestock enterprises include dairy, poultry, sheep, goats, pigs, beekeeping and fish farming.
12. The three main livelihoods in the County were mixed farming (food crops and
    livestock), mixed farming (commercial crops and livestock –dairy) and
    formal/casual employment. The agriculture sector comprises livestock production, veterinary, agriculture and fisheries departments. Characteristics of the agricultural sector vary widely from predominantly small-scale with low external inputs to highly mechanized large-scale farming with very high levels of external inputs. Uasin Gishu has a rich agricultural resource base with 80% of the land tenure being privately owned. Private ownership of land has encouraged investment in permanent and long-term improvements of development on farms. Small-scale farming subsector (0-30 acres) accounts for 75% of the total agricultural produce. However, the County has not exploited its potential. Production of main food crops
    and livestock has generally been low. Farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture and production costs for most crops are high due to high input costs especially fertilizers, poor and long marketing chains consisting of many players for the different commodities making them inefficient and unresponsive to the process needs. Low levels of mechanization and high transport costs due to an increase in global oil prices. Private sector initiatives have not been fully explored. Of the registered cooperative societies, 149 are active, 104 are dormant, and 12 collapsed. The total membership is 24,011 with a turnover of Kshs.200 million. Most of the active societies are engaged in the production and marketing of agricultural produce.
13. Some of the major NGOs operating in the County included the Red Cross,
    SNV, Catholic Relief Services, and World Vision. Most of them engage in social programs relating to the provision of clean water and sanitation services, HIV and AIDS management, gender issues and peacebuilding.
14. There were 877 registered self-help groups out of which 349 were for women while 301 were for youth groups. The groups are mostly engaged in farming and small-scale businesses.
15. The County had a total of 29,802 hectares of gazetted forests out of which
    13,184 hectares (or 44%) were under plantation while 16,618 (or 56%) were under indigenous forest cover. The gazetted forests were; Nabkoi, Timboroa Kipkurere, Lurenge, Singalo, and Kapsaret.
16. The overuse and destruction of forest cover pointed to the need to protect
    forests and water catchment areas. The continued reliance on trees for fuel; and the use of wetlands for farming led to deforestation and encroachment on river banks. These practices resulted in environmental degradation, siltation of water reservoirs, depletion of forest cover, soil erosion and degradation.

The degradation of the environment also resulted from poor solid waste
disposal, pollution from industries and the overuse of insecticides and fertilizers. Soil erosion which was an aspect of environmental degradation had reduced the productivity of the land in some areas. Deforestation had on its part led to unpredictable weather conditions greatly affecting farming.  Rainfall patterns had become increasingly unpredictable and health was also affected.

17. The County had a potential labor force of 550,000 (or 56% of the entire
    population). This implied that 44% of the population was dependent. Out of the total labor force, also 44% are engaged in self-employment. It was inferred that those seeking employment prefer wage employment pointing to the need to create more job opportunities in the County.