• A statement from State House said investigations established that Kimwarer was not technically and financially feasible.
• Senators to write to Office of the President for a copy of team's report to Uhuru.
Image: PSCU
President Uhuru Kenyatta acted against recommendations of a technical committee and cancelled the Sh22.2 billion Kimwaer Dam project in Elgeyo Marakwet county.
It emerged on Thursday that the technical committee chaired by Infrastructure Principal Secretary Paul Maringa had recommended that the Kimwaer Dam project be re-validated, not necessarily scrapped.
Maringa, who testified before the Senate’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, said the technical committee recommended the scaling down of the Arror Dam project in the county, which Uhuru did.
“We did not recommend any cancellation but said in our recommendation that there was a need for a comprehensive revalidation of the Kimwarer project,” he explained.
Uhuru, on September 18, cancelled the Kimwarer Dam project and ordered Arror to be scaled back significantly.
A statement from State House said investigations established that Kimwarer was technically and financially unfeasible.
It said the Arror Dam is expected to cost taxpayers a maximum of Sh15.4 billion and not Sh28.3 billion as earlier estimated.
The President made the cancellation decision after receiving the committee's technical report —key parts of which were kept confidential because the contents were explosive.
The Star has learnt that the report said Kimwarer was to be built on a seismic fault, identified in 1991, and the implications of the geology and strength of the dam had not been investigated since then.
It also said it would require a pumping system for both domestic and irrigation use and maintenance costs would be high.
On Thursday, Maringa said the committee had been mandated to examine the two projects to prevent loss of public funds.
“We determined that there was a need for a technical review of the Kimwarer project," he said.
"There was no feasibility study," he admitted.
The PS said he formed the technical committee after receiving instructions from the President. “There was no gazette notice, no letters of appointment to the committee. It was a verbal instruction from the President."
Senators had wanted to know whether the President wrote to him as required by the Constitution.
“People have mismanaged this country years back because their excuse was that they were acting on instructions from the President. Some were not true,” Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen said.
The committee further asked the PS to provide them with the report he presented to the President.
“We want to look at the report of the technical committee, interrogate it and ask questions based on it,” Nakuru's Susan Kihika said.
Maringa, however, told the committee that he did not have a copy of the report as he gave the President the one he had. He asked the committee to write to the Office of the President for it.
Members concurred that it would be in the best interest to see the report first before interrogating he PS further.
Committee chair Samson Cherargei said the committee would write to the Office of the President to request for a copy of the report within 14 days.
Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and PS Kamau Thugge have been charged in connection with the construction of the two dams.
Rotich and Thugge are out on Sh15 million bail each.
They denied more than 20 charges each, among them conspiracy to commit an economic crime, improperly conferring a benefit, abuse of office, committing an offence of financial misconduct, engaging in a project without prior planning and failing to comply with rules and regulations relating to the management of public finances.
Also charged are former PS Susan Koech and former Kerio Valley Development Authority Managing Director David Kimosop.
Edited by R.Wamochie