Solai dam victims win big in landmark out-of-court settelement

Families of the Solai dam tragedy have entered into a compensation deal that will see the owner fork out money running into millions.

In the deal that the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) presided over, families of adults from the 47 victims will each part with Sh1.2 million as those of the minors get Sh800, 000.

“Kins of 47 Solai dam tragedy victims agree and sign a compensation deal. KHRC represents 29 victims in this agreement, connected to a manslaughter case against nine people, a dam owner and his workers,” reads a statement from KHRC.

The 2018 tragedy occurred when the dam collapsed with water flooding downstream through the fields into homes.

The case has been pending in court over the last five years.

An agreement by the owner to pay the families comes after the victims requested an out-of-court settlement of the matter

The state applied to the court to give the victims more time to engage the accused in the case that has been going on at the Naivasha law courts.

The move comes a couple of months after Naivasha Chief Magistrate Nathan Lutta found out that all the nine had a case to answer.

This emerged during the ongoing trial where Perry Manusukh who is a director at Solai Farm and eight others, were charged with 48 counts of manslaughter on May 8, 2018, and failing to prepare an environmental impact assessment report.

The other eight are Vinoj Jaya Kumar, Johnson Njuguna, Luka Kipyegen, Winnie Muthoni, Jacinta Were, Tomkin Odo Odhiambo, Williec Omondi and Lynette Cheruiyot.

According to State Counsel Gichuhi Gikui, the victims of the tragedy had held a meeting with the accused persons as they sought to resolve the case.

Gichuhi told the court that the victims wanted more time to discuss the issue and seek a lasting solution as part of alternative dispute resolution.

“The victims have held meetings with the accused persons seeking an out-of-court settlement and they are seeking more time to finalise the issue,” she told the court.

The defence team that is led by Senior Counsel Pravin Bowry welcomed the move saying they did not object to the request by the victims.

In his ruling, the magistrate noted that the case, which had been delayed for over five years, needed to be resolved as soon as possible.

He was quick to note that the matter had reached the defence stage warning all parties that the proposed negotiations would not stop the trial process.

He gave the parties until November 20, when the case resumes.

Earlier, geotechnical expert Mang’ong’o Bwocharo told the court that the cause of the incident was a natural phenomenon and beyond human control.

Mang’ong’o said studies conducted on the dam indicated that there was a massive mudslide that saw huge boulders, soil and runoff crash on the dam.

“Field investigations and geological assessment conducted around the dam indicated that the dam failure was caused by a natural phenomenon which was beyond human control,” he said.

Mang’ong’o added that since then, the dam was decommissioned and the water was allowed to flow through the original natural watercourse uninterrupted.