A parliamentary committee is dissatisfied with the pace of the contractor working on Thwake Dam.
Members of the Committee on Environment, Water and Natural Resources on Tuesday went to the site on a fact-finding mission. The team said a year since the contractor got the letter there is little to show on the ground.
"From what we have seen, we fear the contractor will not complete the assignment within the set time frame," chairman Kareke Mbiuki said.
The Maara MP asked the Ministry of Water to push the contractor to ensure the work is completed by 2022.
"We have less than 44 months to go and, therefore, we want to ask the contractor to pull up his socks," Mbiuki said.
In the ministry's approximation, only 13-15 per cent of the work has been done. Mbiuki said they are aware of the challenges such as delayed compensation, but the contractor should try and recover the lost time.
"Since the money to pay the remaining people who have not been compensated has been released, the contractor has no reason to continue dragging his feet," he said.
On February 21, Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui told the Chinese contractor to hasten the construction of the Sh64 billion daThwake Multi-Purpose Dam as it was behind schedule.
The CS said the contractor has not mobilised enough machines and personnel. Chelugui asked the project management committee to write a protest letter. The tender was awarded to Ghezuba Company.
At the same time, Mbiuki said Parliament is working to allocate enough resources to the Ministry of Water to sort out the issue of sewer lines in informal settlement areas resulting in pollution of River Athi.
"Until such a time when the sewer problem in places like Kibera is solved, it will be very difficult to clean this river," he said.
