In Suguta Marmar, Laikipia County, Kisima drilled into one of the most generous aquifer systems we have met in this region. At 185 metres the formation was so wet that the DTH hammer struggled — water flooded the hammer faster than air could clear it, killing the strike. That “bad hammering” was not bad rock. It was the aquifer announcing itself. Today we are equipping the borehole with a 16-cubic-metre-per-hour submersible pump set at 180 metres, powered entirely by solar, to feed full irrigation across the farm.
Drillers know this moment. The bit sounds wrong. Penetration drops. The hammer stops biting. At Suguta Marmar it was not hard rock fighting back — it was the aquifer flooding the down-the-hole hammer faster than compressed air could clear it.
For most of the descent, the formation cooperated. Then, at roughly 185 metres, the DTH hammer stopped biting properly. The cause was not stone — it was water. So much water entered the hole from the aquifer that it flooded the hammer chamber, killing the air pressure the piston needs to strike. Penetration crawled. The drillers call it bad hammering; in this case it was the loudest possible signal that we had hit the aquifer.
Rather than fight the water, we read it. The crew managed compressed air, flushing and rod handling to keep the hole clean, confirmed the inflow zone, and completed the borehole with the aquifer fully open below. There was no point pushing the hammer deeper into water it could no longer beat — the production zone was already proven.
That is exactly why the pump is being seated at 180 metres — just above the heavy-inflow interval, in stable hole, with clean access to the abundant water column below and serviceable for the life of the irrigation system.
This is not a livestock-only DC system. The client is going into irrigation, so the borehole gets a pump that can actually move volume — pulled cleanly off solar power.
Every component in the chain is selected so the 16 m³/hr pump runs reliably through a Laikipia day — and the system stays simple enough for the farm to operate.
Pumped through a full solar day, the system can move tens of thousands of litres into storage and irrigation lines — enough water to support real farm production, not just garden patches. The aquifer below has the volume to back it up.
Diesel fuel for an irrigation pump in Laikipia is an unending bill. Solar removes that bill, removes the noise, removes the moving parts of a generator, and matches the pumping window to when the sun is shining and the plants need water.
Drilling, the aquifer, and the site where the 16 m³/hr solar pump is being installed at 180 metres.
Drilling
Site
Crew
Rig
Completion
Equipping
Site
Team
Every challenge has a corresponding result on the ground. Here is how this Suguta Marmar project moves from rock against the bit to crops in the field.
Drilling planned to reach the aquifer at depth, with the pump seat designed before the rig moved in.
At 185m, water inflow was so heavy it drowned the DTH hammer — a clear signal of a strong production zone.
16 m³/hr submersible set in stable hole, just above the inflow zone for clean access and long service life.
Off-grid pumping powered by Laikipia sun — feeding the farm without diesel, fuel runs, or grid waits.
When the hammer started failing at 185 metres, we thought we had hit a problem. Kisima told us the opposite — that much water was actually the aquifer hitting back. Now a 16-cubic-metre solar pump will irrigate the farm with no diesel at all.
Deep drilling, hammering rock, solar pumps sized for real volume — talk to Kisima when the project must go beyond drinking water into proper farm irrigation.
