Hopes dashed as fortunes sink in elusive dams

What you need to know:

  • Project was expected to inject life into poverty-stricken and insecurity-prone area.

  • The dams were to be built by the government through the Kerio Valley Development Authority to irrigate at least 10,000 acres of land and provide tap water to many.

  • With Sh20 billion already sunk in the projects, they look down the Kipsaiya Hills, where Arror dam was to be built, and shake their heads in despair.

Two dams that were expected to inject life into the bare, dry and desolate areas of Elgeyo-Marakwet turned out to be a big disappointment.

That the county has borne the brunt of poverty and insecurity afflicting the 14 counties of the larger Rift Valley is no secret.

Most of the land in the county is not arable, so many of the residents engage in small-scale farming in areas mostly bordering the more productive Uasin Gishu County.

Some areas along the border with West Pokot are also fairly productive, but rampant cattle rustling makes it difficult to practice meaningful farming.

Just last month, a man harvesting potatoes on his farm near the West Pokot border was shot dead.

The Arror and Kimwarer multipurpose dams were supposed to change this, forever. At least that is what residents were told.

Arror is in Marakwet West and Kimwarer in Keiyo South.

The dams were to be built by the government through the Kerio Valley Development Authority to irrigate at least 10,000 acres of land and provide tap water to many.

But the residents’ hopes seem to have been dashed. With Sh20 billion already sunk in the projects, they look down the Kipsaiya Hills, where Arror dam was to be built, and shake their heads in despair. All they can see are trees.

Most were dumbstruck when it emerged that they could have been the pawns in a multibillion-shilling scam disguised as a noble project to improve their lives.

When the more than 500 residents of Kapsaiya village were informed of the plan to build Arror dam in 2016, they objected immediately. Their biggest concern was that no one had told them why their village had been picked for the project.

They feared that some unscrupulous people were out to steal their land.

Even when former Kerio Valley Development Authority chairman David Kimosop, who comes from a nearby village, tried to convince them, they refused. What followed was brute force that many still remember.

Pushed to the wall, the residents resorted to responding in kind. Last year in April, they attacked a contingent sent on a fact-finding mission by the Italian company, CMC di Ravenna, which was given the tender. A number of them were injured and admitted to a hospital in Eldoret.

“We are grateful to Mr Haji for this step. We had lost hope but we are now happy God has used him to speak for us,” said Mr Ezekiel Chebii, who was set for displacement.