In a fragile coastal border region, Lamu County treats peace, disaster resilience and basic services as interconnected public goods. It combines the inclusion of refugees and host communities, cross-border peacebuilding and community-based disaster management with solar-powered infrastructure, including an Emergency Operations Centre, street lighting and desalination facilities, to keep essential services running during crises. Water is at the heart of this approach: the solar desalination facility in Kiunga turns previously unusable saline groundwater into safe drinking water, while shared governance arrangements help ease long-standing conflicts over scarce resources. Backed by the County Peacebuilding Act of 2021, the approach has been adapted in neighbouring areas, including cross-border communities in Somalia. Looking ahead, a planned national public–private partnership would build a seawater desalination plant supplying up to 120,000 cubic metres of drinking water per day to Lamu Town and the LAPSSET Corridor.