The national bands for 2026: soil excavation and carting within site — KES 350–800 per m³, the spread driven by haul distance, ground and access. Rippable ground where dozers must open material before loading — KES 500–1,000 per m³. Rock requiring breaking — KES 1,200–2,500 per m³, the defining risk line on Machakos, Kitui, Kajiado and parts of Rift sites. Embankment placement from the cut — usually included where the pan balances, add KES 150–400 per m³ placed if material must move beyond the immediate rim. Two lines ride on top: the spillway, KES 150,000–500,000 designed and armoured, and the liner where the floor fails a percolation test — clay at KES 80–150 per m², geomembrane at KES 250–450 per m² installed. As working figures: a 5,000 m³ farm pan lands KES 300K–700K all-in on good ground; a 20,000 m³ community pan KES 1M–2.5M; larger county dams scale from there — always contingent on the siting survey that prices rock and haul before design.

The regional picture behind the national bands. Nairobi metro, Kiambu and the Central highlands: KES 350–700 per m³ — competitive fleets, short hauls, but disposal and county logistics price higher near the city. The Rift Valley (Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale belts): KES 300–650 — excellent red soils that dig fast, long regional hauls the only levy. Western Kenya (Kisumu, Kakamega, Busia): KES 350–750 — black cotton handling slows production and drainage design adds work. Eastern and semi-arid counties (Machakos, Makueni, Kitui): KES 400–900 — the rock band bites hardest here, and mobilisation to remote wards adds a standing charge smaller budgets forget. Kajiado and the southern rift: KES 400–1,000 where volcanic tuff demands breaking. The Coast: KES 400–900 — sand digs fast but compacts poorly, and coral rock appears with little warning. The pattern: the machine day rate barely changes county to county — what moves the per-m³ number is ground, haul and mobilisation, which is why the survey precedes the quote.

Size it from demand across the dry gap, then check the catchment can fill it. Demand: a beef or dairy animal drinks 40–60 litres daily in cool weather and 60–100 in heat; twenty cattle therefore need roughly 1,200–2,000 litres daily, and across a five-month (150-day) dry gap that accumulates 180–300 m³ — call it 250 m³ with cleaning and evaporation margin. Add the household and any small irrigation, and a practical 20-cattle pan targets 400–600 m³ of storage. Geometry: a pan 30 by 20 metres at 1.5 metres average depth delivers roughly that, with 1:2 side slopes and a one-metre freeboard above the spillway crest. The catchment check: at a 15% runoff coefficient — typical rangeland — filling 500 m³ requires about 3,300 m² of effective catchment for a 600mm season, so either a generous catchment ratio (ten times the pan area is the traditional rule) or a diversion channel from uphill. Sizing surveys cost a fraction of a mis-sized pan; the full demand tables for livestock and irrigation sit in the sizing guide, and this cluster's complete construction guide carries the worked examples.

Production math from the fleet: a 30-ton excavator with matched articulated dumpers moves 600–1,200 m³ per day in free soil; a heavy dozer-and-scraper spread pushes more on long balance cuts. Against those rates: a 1,000–3,000 m³ farm pan is a 2–5 day dig; a 5,000–10,000 m³ pan runs 1–3 weeks including embankment shaping and compaction; a 20,000–50,000 m³ community or county dam is a 1–3 month programme with survey-controlled sequencing. The calendar modifiers: rock drops production to 80–250 m³ per day wherever breaking starts; the rains both slow production and punish open faces — dry-season digging is the default plan; and mobilisation to remote wards adds days that vanish from small budgets. Programme honestly and the dig finishes inside the month you said; programme from hope and the pan meets its first rains half-built, which is the most expensive way to store nothing.

The pan fleet follows the production chain. Excavators — 30-ton units as the backbone, 50-ton machines on heavy rock — dig, shape and trim the bowl to formation. Articulated dumpers — 30–40 tonne payloads matched 3–6 passes to the bucket — move the cut to the embankment rim, or cart to spoil where the pan overflows its balance. Dozers rip and push on balance cuts, and build the haul routes before the fleet needs them. Graders trim the embankment crest and access road to falls. Rollers — smooth drum on granular rim fill, sheepsfoot on clay — compact the embankment in specification lifts. And breakers on the excavators where rock interrupts the floor. Hire rates run the standard bands — 30-ton excavators KES 15,000–25,000 per day, dumpers KES 18,000–30,000 — and the fleet that wins is the one sized to the pan, not the one nearest the yard: the full selection logic sits in this cluster's construction guides.