Locals evicted from dam site stay put

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Itare Dam ponder their next move after officers and hired youth demolish their makeshifts in Kuresoi South, Nakuru County on September 17, 2019. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

More than 1,000 families evicted for the second time by the police from the site of the stalled multi-billion shilling Itare Dam in Kuresoi South have vowed to stay put.

Even after the Government on Tuesday demolished makeshift structures erected by the families at the site, the evictees refused to move, saying they had nowhere to go.

"We have nowhere to go," said Simon Kiprono, as he pitched a new tent at the exact site where armed police officers destroyed a makeshift structure he was living in.

The dam construction began in 2016, but stalled after an Italy-based contractor, CMC Di Ravenna, filed for bankruptcy last year.

Mr Kiprono, who is the chairperson of the IDPs, said none of them had left the site.

"People have been living here before the dam. Even when they started constructing the dam, we refused to leave. Let the Government show us where to go," he added.

He maintained that the decision by the Government to evict them was an illegality.

Kiprono said that after the demolition, most families were forced to spend the night in the open while a few others reconstructed their demolished makeshift structures.

What surprises the locals is the fact that work is yet to resume at the site yet the Government has moved in to evict them.

Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui had in July hinted that the Government would have no option but to terminate the project should CMC Di Ravenna fail to subcontract the work.

Mr Chelugui, who had appeared before the National Assembly Environment Committee said the ministry was considering pushing CMC Di Ravenna to sub-contract the project.

He informed the committee that if the option to push CMC Di Ravenna to sub-contract failed, there would be no option than to terminate the contract and forfeit the billions of shillings already paid, adding that Sh11 billion had been spent.

He asked Kenyans to give the ministry three months to determine the way forward.

“Who even knows whether this project will continue or will become another white elephant in the country?” wondered Samuel Bett, a resident.

Nakuru County Commissioner Erastus Mbui maintains that the locals occupying the dam land must leave.