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 Transport 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 opportunity 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.
“The construction works of the office is expected to be ready by July next year and it is so far the major construction work going on at the Lamu port,” said Githui.
He added that the 2.5km perimeter wall construction, which is being undertaken by the National Youth Service, is so far almost half way done, and should be completely done in the next three months.
About 50 artisan labourers have been offered employment at the port site as of now.
Raise them
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who had visited the region at the weekend promised to raise the problems with the Government in the next 45 days.
“I promise to make a follow-up of the matters raised by Lamu leaders concerning the Lamu port construction, and ensure that the port issue is not politicised,” said Uhuru.
