Residents of Makueni and Kitui will have to wait longer for the completion of the Thwake Multipurpose Dam whose completion the government has postponed yet again for the fifth time.
Water Cabinet Secretary Eric Mugaa, who visited the site for the first time since his appointment as Water CS, revealed that the government will have to postpone the completion due to financial constraints.
Mugaa, who was overseeing how far the project was, noted that the embankment phase will take approximately six months to finish.
“The embankment wall has been rockfield and prepared for the embankment phase to be completed. According to the contractor, it will take 162 days which is like 5.5 months to finish”, Mugaa told the press.
Undated file image of On-going Construction of Thwake Dam in Makueni County
Kenyans.co.ke
Work in the Dam had been halted for two months with the contractors citing no funds to complete it.
The Water Cabinet Secretary explained that the government is in constant communication with the African Development Bank, which is funding the project to ensure they fast-track the release of funds.
However, this is not the first time the government has postponed the construction of the dam.
So far, the completion of Thwake Dam has been postponed five times, with close to 4 different Water Cabinet Secretaries overseeing the project.
In October 2023, the then Cabinet Secretary for Water Zachary Njeru was the 4th CS to inspect the project and promised residents that the project was 84.4 percent done and that it would be completed in December of that year. However, the government has now changed its tune yet again.
According to Mugaa, residents should expect the project to be completed by mid-next year.
“We are very keen as a Ministry to ensure that the project comes to an end in due time, latest by mid-next year”, the CS stated.
By October 2023, the project had consumed over Ksh22 billion shillings funded by the African Development Bank. The funds made up close to 90% of the finances required to finish the first phase of the project but still, a lot was yet to be done.
Controversy dogged the main contractor of the project, China Gezuba Group Company, which had been forced to shut down operations several times owing to cash flow problems. There were incidents where workers downed their tools for lack of payment while theft of equipment at the site resulted in the project being hampered.
Upon completion, the dam will supply some 150,000 cubic metres per day to assist an estimated 1.3 million of rural inhabitants of Kitui, Makueni, and Machakos counties.
An Undated Image of Thwake Dam Construction Site
