Infrastructure PS: Kimwarer was not cancelled

Infrastructure Principal Secretary Paul Maringa has denied cancelling the Kimwarer dam construction.

Prof Maringa, who chaired the technical committee that investigated irregularities in both Kimwarer and Arror dams in Elgeyo Marakwet County, said they recommended re-validation of the Kimwarer Dam and scaling down of Arror Dam projects.

Appearing before the Senate’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, the PS said the Sh22 billion Kimwarer project needed to be looked into afresh.

He said the Arror dam, initially estimated at Sh28.3 billion, will now cost Sh15.4b with power and Sh13.1 billion without power, and will require about 250 acres of land.

Maringa told the Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei-led committee that the technical committee was objective in the assignment and gave professional technical advice.

“The report made a comparison between the two dams on the amount of land required for the purpose of prioritisation. We also only have one report handed to the president,” said Maringa, after Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen took him to task to explain why he was only reporting about the matrix of the technical report and not the report itself.

The committee has now been given 14 days to submit the Technical Committee report to enable senators make a determination on the same.