Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui now says that the Arror and Kimwarer dams which are faced by corruption allegations are not under his docket. The CS who was tasked to explain the status of the dams in the country by the National Assembly Environment committee, said the country has 57 dam projects and only 22 are under his ministry.
“There are certain projects that have been mentioned in the media including Kimwarer and Arror Dams. I want to state and inform this committee that those two dams are not under the Ministry of Water and are being implemented by other agencies and specifically by the Ministry of East Africa and Regional development; Itare is under my ministry but it is facing contractual challenges which we are working on,” Chelugui said.
He further called on MP Kareke Mbiuki (Maara)-led committee to intervene and ensure that the construction of all dams is put under Water and Sanitation Ministry for easier management. “The implementation of dam projects is scattered in various ministries and agencies ; the Ministry of Water and Sanitation strongly recommends that the implementation of dams be done by ministry of water because as we speak we have over 104 engineers and I believe we have the capacity to handle all these dams; we can share the water with anybody including irrigation projects ,” he added.
In his response, Mbiuki stated that the irrigation sector was moved from the Water Ministry to Agriculture a move whose reasons were not known by the committee. He assured the CS that his committee will raise the issue with the executive.