By Awadh Babo
The Government’s failure to honor its promise of channeling funds to facilitate operations of the Lamu Port steering committee in the Coast region has seen the body’s activities become stifled in the last few months.
The committee is now calling on the Government to submit the money to enable it effect its role as a bridge between the Government and Lamu residents.
Speaking in Lamu on Saturday, Committee Chairman Mr Abdalla Fadhil said it was unfortunate that the farmers affected in the port project have not been compensated to enable them go about their daily economic activities and added that the poor road network has made Lamu lag behind in economic development.
Honour promises
He challenged the Government to honour the promises it made during the ground breaking ceremony of the port project which included recruiting 1,000 youth from Lamu county to Bandari College for specialised training.
Fadhil also criticised the on-going implementation of the multi-billion LAPSSET project ( Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Trans port Corridor) — which cuts across different ministries — saying it is causing a lot of confusion in its implementation.
He said Lamu businessmen should be given an op portunity to undertake contracts and sub-contracts in the LAPSSET project as a measure of ensuring that local residents benefit fully from the project.
Meanwhile, the initial phase of the project, which involves the construction of a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) office at a cost of Sh866 million at the port site, is going on smoothly.
Progressing well
Currently, about 40 per cent of the KPA office works has been completed covering the foundation, ground floor slabs and the ground floor columns. The KPA office, which is being carried out by Vaghjian Enterprises Limited, covers about 3,600 square meters of the total floor area.
Speaking to The Standard in Lamu town on Sunday the resident engineer in the Ministry of Public Works in Lamu county, James Githui, said the construction of the office is going on at the expected pace.
