This archive report was first published on 19 September 2019.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has cancelled the 22B Aror and Kimwarer Multipurpose Dam projects, citing financial unviability. The projects had been embroiled in allegations of massive looting, with the country losing close to 20B due to inflated costs.
DP William Ruto's allies, including Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen, Keiyo South MP Daniel Rono, Belgut MP Nelson Koech, and Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi, have accused the President of ethnically marginalizing the Rift Valley region.
According to the MPs, the cancellation of the projects was a deliberate attempt to deny the people of Elgeiyo Marakwet their rightful share of national projects. They claimed that the government had been determined to 'kill' the construction of the multi-purpose dam from the start.
“They started giving it a bad name that there were irregularities in how it was done. Some people were charged. Now they have cancelled it just to deny our people this critical project,” MP Koech said.
MP Sudi claimed that the initial plan was to divert the project to a different part of the country, and the only way to do that was to bring up the issues of corruption.
“This matter is in court but it is clear they do not have evidence against the innocent people who have been charged. The whole scheme was to deny the people of Elgeiyo Marakwet the project which they have waited for several decades,” Sudi charged.
MP Rono, whose constituency the dam is situated in, said he would appeal to Uhuru to reconsider the move.
“It is unfortunate that the entire community has had to suffer because of some people who are alleged to have committed some irregularities. The President should have waited for the matter in court to be concluded before taking any drastic action like he has done today (yesterday),” Rono said.
Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen said the cancellation of Kimwarer dam and restructuring of Arror dam did not come as a surprise, as he had known of the plan to kill the projects all along.
He claimed that the composition of the technical committee did not reflect the ethnic and regional balance, and that the move would deny the residents of his county their rightful share of national projects in a deliberate act of discrimination.
