President William Ruto led cabinet on Tuesday gave the green light for the out-of-court negotiation between Kenya and Italy to settle the stand-off over the unprocedural termination of the Arror and Kimwarer dams contracts.
The move comes a week after Ruto and his counterpart from Italy, Sergio Mararella held talks over the projects.
The three dams; Kimwarer, Arror and Itare were subjected to court cases.
"Cabinet considered and approved the resolution of the impasse in the implementation of the Arror,Kimwarer, and Itare Dam Projects through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)," reads the cabinet dispatch.
Last week, Ruto announced that the government of Kenya and Italy had agreed to withdraw the arbitration cases against the three dams.
"I’m proud to announce that the construction of three dams which were subjected to court cases and court matters will be able to go on in a few months," he said.
Ruto said the two countries had committed in good faith to also re-establish cooperation on other water and sanitation programme which are critical to Kenya's agenda on food security, delivery of water and climate action.
A technical team appointed by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2019 cancelled the Sh22.2 billion Kimwarer dam in Keiyo South sub-county, finding that it was overpriced and was not technically or financially viable.
However, it approved the Sh28.3 billion Arror dam in the Marakwet East sub-county.
In the dam fraud case, former National Treasury CS Henry Rotich, his Principal Secretary (PS) Kamau Thugge alongside four others were charged with conspiracy to defraud and abuse of office, which resulted in the loss of Sh63 billion in 2019.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had initially charged 24 individuals in relation to the scandal but has now terminated charges against 15 including Thugge and former East Africa Community PS Susan Jemutai Koech after they agreed to be prosecution witnesses.
