Dam tragedy will ebb away, add to grievances poverty breeds

A fault line cutting across the road connecting - Nyandarua and Arutani villages in Solai, Nakuru County that was caused by water during Patel dam tragedy on May 22, 2018. [Photo: Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

I was in Solai, Nakuru, last week where the Kenya Human Rights Commission launched a report “The Damned Dams,” on the recent horror incident where a dam owned by the Patel Coffee Estates broke its banks, killing not less than 47 people.

I took time to talk with locals about their experiences that fateful evening and there were both uplifting and tear-jerking stories.

I was shown this little yet-to-occupied structure at the shopping centre, which the locals now call Noah’s Ark.

There is a story behind its new name. As the water gushed downhill, and on realising they had no chance of escaping it, a group of 8 people stood in front of the shop, hoping that it would shield them from the approaching storm.

While all other buildings next to the little shop were swept away, the little structure withstood the tornado, saving the lives of all who had sheltered under it, and who now also witnessed the angry water carry everything away in front of them.

Below Noah’s Ark is a road that separates the shops from the Nyakinyua settlement, originally part of the Patel Estates, and now home to 600 smallholder families.

Before the tragedy, there were homesteads and crops on that side. In the wake of the tragedy, the path that the water followed can be seen, since the water stripped the land of all its top soil, leaving a craggy mess behind.

The colossal boulders the water deposited along its path, constitute further evidence of the force with which it came down.

Looking at the pathway the water created, I could not help remembering the phrase “boundless and bare” from P B Shelley’s poem, Ozymandias.

Further down, the water hollowed out a massive gully. In some places, it is as deep as ten feet and as wide as twenty five. 

Enduring trauma

Perched on one side of the gully is a round concrete water tank.

Although on considerably high ground where the water should not have reached, a house that stood next to the tank was swept away.

This was evidence of how high the water climbed as the uneven terrain funneled it skywards, giving it extra force. The owner of the house was swept away, alongside her house.

I spoke with a number of survivors. One of them, a man in his 30s, lost his wife who was swept away with her week-old infant, and their three other children.

With his leg fractured by the flying boulders, he watched helplessly as his wife and children drowned.

Nothing is left of what was once his homestead, as the water scrapped his house and all the crops. I was told that a family decision was then made to bury the dead in a cemetery, as four graves in what was once their homestead would have left him with enduring trauma.

Unbowed by the tragedy and still with a plaster still on his broken leg, the man has started a new life as a boda boda rider.

Since he lost everything, his extended family provided the financing for his new business.

While the ill-fated dam was drained of its water, three of the remaining seven dams on the Patel Estate are still a risk to the local community as these are perched on higher ground overlooking the shopping centre and Nyakinyua settlement below.

One of the three dams has since been drained but that has created a new menace. The inlet to two of the dams, including the one that was emptied, consisted of two rivers.

To create the dams, the Patel Estates had diverted the course of the rivers onto their land, privatising the water and denying the downstream population access.

Now that the dams have been drained, and since the rivers lost their original course, the water flows where it will, and is the new menace in town.

Local officials from the Water Authority attended the launch of the report and addressed the community, explaining that there are plans to restore the two rivers to their original pathway.

Accountability highly unlikely

The Patel Estates are a naked injustice. It is difficult to understand how the government could have stood by as a large landowner privatised a public water source.

The Patel Estates are a form of modern feudalism, defining and controlling the Solai shopping centre economy.

Uninvited, the owners take over the construction of area public facilities including schools, hospitals, and even the local police station.

The locals talked of the largesse of the Patel Estates towards the police, supplying them with fuel, even allowing them to use their vehicles.

Those who died or were injured in this dreadful incident had done nothing wrong.

While there is clear wrongdoing in the circumstances leading to this tragedy, the authorities say they are still investigating, almost two months later, making accountability highly unlikely.

Having cast themselves in the image of philanthropist, an image that masks their close relations with people in the Kenyan government, the Patels are unlikely to face justice, and this incident will just ebb away, adding to the massive grievances that poverty breeds in Kenya.

- The writer is Executive Director KHRC. [email protected]