Jinxed Tana Delta takes the stage as State mulls over stalled projects

By Patrick GithinjiAll eyes are turned to the Cabinet as a new cabinet paper is stirring hope that stalled projects along the Tana River Delta hangs will be revived.The Ministry of Regional Development is preparing the cabinet paper to pave way for the commencement of the Mumias Sugar, and the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority (Tarda) sugar project."The cabinet paper is set to square out all the pending issues, which stalled the project," said Eng Carey Orege, PS Regional Development, in a telephone interview with the Financial Journal.However, he couldn’t disclose what is entailed in the document before the Cabinet discusses it."Details in the Cabinet memo can only be released to the public after the ministers have discussed," he said.Resource sharingOnce approved, the Cabinet paper will reveal how resources will be shared among various investors and the local communities, a factor that has been holding back development in the area.Among the projects that stalled includes the Qatari plantation project, which would have seen investors lease 40,000 ha of land to grow crops that would later be exported back to Qatar, in exchange for support for a major new port in nearby Lamu. The plan drew sharp protests from residents of Tana River District.Another company eyeing the area was Tiomin Kenya, which planned to mine titanium in the Delta, and is currently in discussions with the government. Even a Tarda rice factory, and a planned mango plant are still on the ground.But perhaps the most controversial project was the Mat International plan to acquire over 30,000 ha of land in Tana Delta and another 90,000 ha in adjacent districts for sugarcane projects. The plan would have seen the rise to a factory rivaling all the sugar milling companies in western Kenya, producing 15,000 tonnes of sugar daily, and helping bridge the country’s sugar deficit, which stands at 300,000 tonnes annually. The project, which was due to start in 2008, was anticipated to cost about Sh10 billion and use gravity flow irrigation.The Mat International plan was similar to a plan by Mumias Sugar and Tarda to convert about 20,000 ha of the Delta into a monoculture sugar cane plantation. Civil societies are worried about the destruction of the ecosystem, considering that the area is not protected by the Ramsar Convention, which calls for the conservation and sustainable utilisation of wetlands. In fact, in 2007 conservation groups got a court a court injunction, temporarily stopping the project from taking off. However, in June last year, the High Court ruled in favour of the developers on a technicality. Now the Government has given tenure rights and ownership of 40,000 ha of Delta land to TARDA, ostensibly to grow rice and maize as a response to Kenya’s recent drought and food shortage.Clean bill of healthEng Orege said the project has received a clean bill from National EnvironmentalManagement Authority (Nema). But Nema says it is the duty of line ministries and interested parties, such as the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to take the initiative, and get the area gazetted as protected.Wangari Kihara, Nema’s acting Chief Corporate Communications Manager, says the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) of 1999 was clear. "Once the protected areas are identified, we pursue their gazettement by the Minister for Environment," she said.However, Tarda is hopeful the projects will kick off as scheduled. The authority has held several discussions with the community and enlightened them on the importance of the projects."We will soon advertise an expression of interest tender for a management consultant, who will advise Tarda on the management of the Tana Delta,’ Francis Agoya, the Managing Director of Tarda said."We have learnt from the past, and now we are involving the communities in the commercial enterprises to increase their wealth basket," he added.He, however, maintains that meeting local expectation and ensuring the dreams resident’s harbor comes true is the real challenge. To address this, Tarda has developed a strategy that will directly benefit the community, and increase wealth through irrigation schemes.Lamu portThe growing interest in the area has been fuelled further by the plan to construct a port at Lamu, and build a second transport corridor linking Kenya to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan, via Garissa and Isiolo.Tana irrigation infrastructure was destroyed during the 1997 El-Nino rain. Most have now been rehabilitated through an Economic Stimulus Programme."Now the capital outlay will be very little compared to a decade ago," Agoya added.Tana River delta covers over 200,000 hectares of land, of which Tarda owns 33,000 hectare.

Jinxed Tana Delta takes the stage as State mulls over stalled projects

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