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Residents hope Arror, Kimwarer dams will be built

Residents of Kimwarer at a meeting to discus the dam project on March 9, 2019
Residents of Kerio Valley have expressed hope that the suspended Arror and Kimwarer dam projects will be implemented despite the financial scandal surrounding them.
The scandal took centre stage in national politics most of this year.
“It was a bad year for us because we had started off with high hopes that the two dams were to be implemented in order to create jobs through irrigation and power supply but everything collapsed,” Jane Kimutai, a resident of Arror said. 
She was among more than 1,200 families who were to be displaced from their homes in Elgeyo Marakwet county to create space for the dams.
She said they still hoped the projects will be implemented despite the ongoing court cases against suspended Treasury CS Henry Rotich, PS Kamau Thuge, former CEO of KVDA David Kimosop and others.
President Kenyatta cancelled the Sh22.5 billion Kimwarer dam and ordered that Arror dam be down scaled.
Leaders from Elgeyo Marakwet however sent a petition to Uhuru asking him to visit the area and rescind the decision.
Residents protested terming the president’s decision political and one that would hurt the lives of more than 100,000 residents in the area that is classified as semi-arid.
Residents led by businessman Micah Kigen have written to Uhuru arguing that his decision was ill-informed and based on a faulty report by a technical team that was formed to look into the viability of the Kimwarer and Arror dams.
“The technical team never visited the area to assess the ground and talk to locals. That is why we believe the decision was political, aimed at hurting the Keiyo community and other neighbouring residents,” Kigen said.
“To say that Kimwarer was not viable is not true. The area has enough water that will not require any pumping as claimed by the technical team and its irrigation component would have helped starving people in both Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo.”
A technical team headed by Infrastructure PS Paul Maringa found that the Kimwarer project had been overpriced and it was neither technically or financially viable. About Sh4 billion had already been paid to Italian firm CMC Di Ravenna which had been contracted by KVDA to develop the project.
The technical team also found that water supply for the dam would require pumping but the team noted that such mechanism would be costly and not sustainable.
Kimwarer was to be developed along with the Arror dam which was to cost Sh35 billion. The technical team established that Arror dam was viable but had also been overpriced.
The team recommended scaling down of the Arror project to rationalize cost without affecting its performance and output. A new bill of quantities prepared by the team recommended that its height be reduced to 60 meters from the original plan of 96 meters.

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