Gatundu North should reject dams

I come from Gatundu North. My ancestral home is in Ngethu. The mbari ya mwembu occupied the land situated on a slope that dipped to River Chania. River Chania is unique. It is the boundary that separates Kiambu and Murang’a counties. Due to its sparkling and clear running waters, Chania River was considered a solution to Nairobi’s perennial water problem in the 1970s. Using a World Bank loan, the middle Chania dam, pipe line paths and a treatment site at Ngethu were constructed. This meant relocation of families that had lived together for a long time. My family was affected. We temporarily moved to a four-room house in Ngethu Primary School, then known as Ndekei.

The construction workers - whites, Asians and Africans - did not spare the girls in the village. Most girls of my age and those slightly older were married or impregnated by the workers. Since the time of the dam construction, I have not seen a girl mature in Ngethu, go to secondary school and then to university. Life in Ngethu does not allow them. The water project did not provide water to any of the residents in the so called Chania location. Neither is there an all weather road, or electricity for the location. The location does not benefit in any way from the dam or from the treatment site. Only a few locals are employed. The weather also changed and diseases which were previously unknown in the locality set in. Whenever the water treatment site is flushed it causes environmental havoc and poses danger to people downstream.

In the 1980s, another dam was constructed at Kariri because the pumps in middle Chania dam were breaking down due to silting. These two dams, Kariri and Middle Chania, are now ghost dams because of the construction of Ndakaini which is considered a more efficient dam. To cut the story short another dam is being constructed in Gatundu North at Gathanji to tap River Karimininu. Families will be relocated after compensation. Why should people be relocated for the sake of the dam construction that is not serving their interests?

Why can’t Nairobi County Government clean the rivers that flow within the city? From Globe Cinema to Kenyatta University, there are eight rivers whose water is polluted because of the city. Why can’t the county government clean the waters before it goes to destroy the heritage of Gatundu North? I’m told environmental assessments have been done but how can the problems that affected my family or the problems that affected girls in Ngethu be predicted by assessments. Some of the people who were relocated from Ngethu were IDPs in the 2008 election violence. It is high time affected residents joined hands and said no to this unscrupulous appropriation of their heritage and natural resources.