Cabinet Secretary for Petroleum and Mining John Munyes has urged Turkana residents to allow the government to acquire land for the construction of an oil pipeline.
Munyes said the pipeline would help in the transportation of crude oil from the Lokichar oil basin to Mombasa.
“I want to challenge the people of Turkana that this project is time bound. We need to deliver the pipeline by 2021-2022 to be one of the oil-exporting countries in Africa,” he said.
The crude oil pipeline traverses six counties including Turkana, Samburu, Isiolo, Meru, Garisa and Lamu.
Munyes said the government needed to finalise in two months the terms of agreement of the land acquisition and water that will be used to pump the crude oil.
"All these require support from the public and that is why we are moving around to engage leaders, professionals, business communities and our pastoralists,” he said.
In March Turkana county government moved to court seeking conservatory orders to stop the implementation of National Land commission decision for compulsory land acquisition.
Munyes said as of May a total of 112,648 barrels had been transported to Mombasa for export.
Once there are 200,000 barrels collected, it will be presented to the international market for commercialisation.
He said the project will contribute to gross domestic product of the country.
(Edited by O. Owino)
