Building of Sh6.9b Naivasha Dry Port begins

Antony Gitonga 18th Nov 2019 08:35:00 GMT +0300

**Construction workers at a section of a bridge linking Mai Mahiu-Narok highway and the dry port in Naivasha.** [Standard]

Construction of the Sh6.9 billion Naivasha Dry Port has started.

The government projects that the port, which was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta last month, will be ready by the end of December.

Families that were living on the 1,000-acre Kedong ranch, where the port is being built, have started to be resettled.

According to Naivasha Sub-county Commissioner Mathioya Mbogo, the road linking the port to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is nearly complete.

Mr Mbogo, who spoke during a tour of the construction site, said the fencing of the 1,000 acres was also complete while electricity connection had been finalised.

“Works on the port are at an advanced stage. Many of our local youth have been employed at this site. We expect the Inland Container Depot to be ready by the end of this year,” Mbogo said.

He said the first batch of 51 families, which have been displaced by the construction, will be resettled starting this week.

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“This is now government land and we have started the process of resettling all the displaced people,” he said.

The government’s efforts to resettle the families have been supported by a section of members of the Kitet-Sission community, who disowned protests by some of their kin, who claimed that the resettlement was illegal.

The Kedong ranch has provided 4,000 acres where the community is to be settled.

According to Mike Roka, the Kitet-Sission community secretary, some politicians from Narok and Kajiado were behind the demonstrations.

“All the families displaced by construction of the dry port have agreed to be resettled on land provided by Kedong ranch. Those protesting are outsiders,” Mr Roka said. He emphasised that the community fully backed the ongoing project.

Community chairman Dopoi Sarite said his people went to court in 2003 and that is when the management of Kedong agreed to compensate them.

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