Changes in land use-land cover (LULC) affect ecosystems, biodiversity and goods and services that ecosystems provide to society. Information on changes in land use-land cover is in crucial delineating impacted areas, understand the type of changes, their spatial patterns and impacts. The magnitude of change varies with time period examined as well as the geographical area. The study focused on the Saiwa Swamp watershed in western Kenya which has mixed farming and with one of the smallest conservation areas, the Saiwa Swamp National Park (3 km² ). Results from the study show significant land use-land cover changes have taken place in the watershed in the last 3 decades since 1985. Although built-up and riparian areascovered about 0.46% and 0.81% of the watershed, they showed significant increase and a decline respectively. These LULC changes were largely attributed to socio-economic drivers including population increase and extensive agriculture. There is hence need to strengthen law enforcement on physical planning in order to reduce encroachment of natural areas such as forests and riparian zones. The study also recommends further assessment and monitoring of spatial and temporal based land use-land cover changes in Kenya.