Hundreds of residents from Trans Nzoia and West Pokot counties brought traffic to a standstill in the Makutano area of Kapenguria on Thursday as they protested against the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) over unpaid land compensation.
The residents claim KETRACO acquired portions of their land for the construction of power lines but has since failed to fulfil the compensation terms agreed upon during the project rollout.
They explained that they had been requested to surrender their title deeds for a verification exercise, with a promise of payment within 90 days.
However, that timeline lapsed without any compensation. Even after the title deeds were returned, a second 90-day payment window also elapsed without payment.
This was despite their initial hopes that giving their land to the government was in good faith and that their acts of nationalism would be for the good of the nation.
''When they built the line from Turkwell, we were assured of compensation for the infrastructure passing through our farms. But to date, we have not received a single cent," a resident told reporters during the demonstration.
"Please give us our money; we have waited long enough," pleaded the residents as they took to the streets with placards. The protest drew a mix of elderly citizens and youth, all united in demanding compensation that, according to them, was long overdue.
The residents revealed that the company owed them over Ksh200 million in compensation, amounts they maintained could change their lives.
The government, through the company, has been developing a 200kV transmission line with a voltage capacity of 200 megawatts to support electrical transmission for Kenyans.
This 220kV single-circuit line, spanning approximately 139 miles (224 km), connects the 106 MW Turkwel Hydroelectric Power Station in West Pokot County to Kitale in Trans-Nzoia County, passing through Ortum.
The transmission line aims to provide an alternative route for evacuating power from the Turkwel Hydroelectric Power Station, which previously relied on the Turkwel–Eldoret–Lessos High Voltage Transmission Line.
The Turkwel Hydroelectric Power Station generates approximately 474.6 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity and ranks as Kenya’s third-largest hydroelectric plant, after the Gitaru (225 MW) and Kiambere (168 MW) stations.
