Sh38b Itare dam project in limbo as contractor files for bankruptcy

A section of Itare Dam in Kuresoi North. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

An Italian firm contracted to build the Sh38 billion Itare dam in Kuresoi north sub-county has filed for bankruptcy in Italy.

The fate of the project now remains uncertain. The company, Co-operativa Muratoi e Cementisti Di Ravenna (CMC Ravenna), was supposed to complete the project by 2021.

The project was aimed at providing clean drinking water to about 800,000 people in Nakuru County.

Documents seen by The Standard, indicate the company had completed 49 per cent of the project by the time its management filed for bankruptcy in a court in Ravenna in December last year.

The management of the Rift Valley Water Services Board (RVWSB), the project’s executing agency, was yesterday quick to allay fears that the project might not be completed.

New contract

Board chairman John Kitilit said a delegation from the Ministry of Water had met with the Italian ambassador and agreed that the project will be sub-contracted to another company.

“We managed to negotiate with the Italians who signed the loan agreement with the National Treasury and we agreed the project will go on,” said Mr Kitilit.

Kitilit whose term expired late last year, but still serves in the absence of a new appointee, said the ministry and the board were looking at the legal aspects of the existing contracts, and consulting with the financiers before sub-contracting the project.

We could not reach a representative of CMC Ravenna for a comment since their offices in Nairobi closed last year.