| Work Detail |
Four years after being halted, work on the Sh63 billion Kerio dams, consisting of the Arror and Kimwarer dams, is about to resume.
This comes after President William Ruto met with Sergio Mattarella, his Italian counterpart, in Nairobi.
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government halted progress on the twin dams in Elgeyo Marakwet in 2019 due to graft claims.
The president noted that Kenya and Italy reached an agreement to withdraw court cases related to the botched dams project, which was stopped by former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2019 once investigations discovered a scandal in which billions were paid to an Italian company for work that was never done.
When the project stalled and the contractors were driven off the sites, the dispute was taken to arbitration in London. The government agreed to resolve it and even paid Sh10 billion out of fear of paying a penalty of Sh80 billion for breaching the contract prematurely.
Ruto noted that the project’s funding would be restructured and work would resume in the coming months.
Henry Rotich, a former Treasury Cabinet Secretary; David Kimosop, a former KVDA Managing Director; and seven other officials are charged with conspiring to defraud the Kenyan government of billions in the Arror and Kimwarer dam scandals.
Reported on
Construction of US $630m Kerio dams in Kenya set to begin
Kenya Defaults On Arror, Kimwarer Dams Loan -
Kenya is set to commence construction of US $630m Kerio dams in Elgeyo-Marakwet County in the Great Rift Valley, as a result of start of compensation of over 800 families to be displaced by the project by the National Land Commission (NLC).
NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri confirmed the reports and said his team are on a two-week tour of the Arror and Kimwarer dam sites to distribute and sensitize locals and the gazetted families on acquisition of land and resettlement of the displaced families.
The multi-purpose dams project consist of; Arror dam which will cost US $385m and will be established on river Arror and the US $280m Kimwarer dam on river Kimwarer in Marakwet West and Keiyo South sub-counties respectively.
The dams which will be constructed on a 6, 0000 acres piece of land, will be acquired from the local community at a cost of US $63m to cater for their land compensation and resettlement of the displaced locals.
Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) managing director Mr. David Kimosop said that more than 30 consultants including engineers, designers and planners are already on the ground and the construction process is to last shorter than anticipated. The engineers are already carrying out mapping and evaluation of the projects which will facilitate piping for the hydroelectricity and irrigation project.
“This two projects are key to unlocking the huge potential of the Kerio Valley region. We will ensure that this exercise is conducted in an accountable and transparent manner devoid of corruption and other malpractices. We shall compensate the families using international standards and any person who surrendered his or her parcel of land will benefit from the resettlement programme,” assured Mr. Kimosop.
KVDA in partnership with CMC di Ravena and Itenera of Italy financed by the Italian government plans to implement the multi-purpose project to generate 60MW of electricity to the national grid and enhance irrigated agriculture on an over 20,000 acres. |
