Five years after former President Uhuru Kenyatta cancelled the tender for the construction of the Arror and Kimwarer dams, the Kenyan taxpayer is still expected to pay Ksh23 billion that had been advanced by Italian investors towards the two projects.
According to the Public Debt Stock External Debt Register for the 2022/23 Financial Year released by the National Treasury on Monday, the money was borrowed in 2017.
Documents show that the Kenyan government received the money in four tranches from Intesa Sanpaolo - an Italian international banking group.
The money advanced through a buyer’s credit was all wired to a Kenyan bank on April 18, 2017, two years before the projects were abruptly terminated.
For Kimwarer Dam, Kenya received two wire transfers of Ksh10 billion with Arror Dam receiving similar wire transfers of Ksh13 billion.
The amount advanced is expected to be cleared by November 9, 2035, for Kimwarer and January 18, 2036, for Arror.
Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration cancelled the project after reports emerged that the Kimwarer Dam project was overpriced making it neither technically nor financially viable.
The Arror Multipurpose Dam Project was on the other hand found economically viable but grossly overpriced.
Politicians from Rift Valley led by former Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen disagreed with Uhuru’s report alleging the cancellation was a clear case of discrimination.
The leaders wondered why no one was found guilty of the procurement irregularities cited by Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration.
“They started giving it a bad name that there were irregularities in how it was done. Now they have cancelled it just to deny our people this critical project,” the leaders complained then.
Whether it was a case of discrimination or there was a true case of procurement irregularity, Kenyans will pay a Ksh23 billion loan with no indication of how the money was used once it hit Kenyan bank accounts.
