Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui has admitted that the killer Patel Dam in Solai was unlicensed and, therefore, illegal.
Appearing before an ad-hoc Senate Committee probing the tragedy that left 47 dead and thousands displaced, Chelugui further disclosed that state officials who had sought to inspect the dam had been frustrated.
He revealed that the officials' efforts to inspect the farm were thwarted as they were denied access to the highly-secured property.
Last month, the Water Resources Management Authority (WARMA) disclosed that they had repeatedly asked the management of the farm to regularise the seven dams on the land as none of them had been cleared by engineers from the government agency.
Legally, any private dam going past five metres should be regularized by the authority.
[caption caption="The aftermath of the Solai dam tragedy"]
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The farm on which the dams sit is reportedly owned by Solai Group Chairman Mansukhlal Patel whose family blamed the tragedy on heavy rains that they said had led to the bursting of the dam's banks.
In a statement issued through Lena Gatabaki, the Patel family vowed to work with the national and county governments to help the affected families and avoid such a tragic event from recurring.
“We will help clear funeral and medical expenses. Our next step is to develop a sustainable rehabilitation system for the community in which we intend to rebuild all the destroyed houses within a month, provide basic household needs and restart farm operations since most of those affected are farm workers,” the statement read in part.
Kamukunji MP Yussuf Haji, in Parliament, had called for the farm's owner to be charged as he questioned whether he was being protected.
“Buildings have collapsed in the past and the owners were arrested, questioned and forced to record statements. This does not appear to be the case in Solai dam disaster because it has been a week already and the owner has not recorded a statement. How powerful is the owner?” he posed.
[caption caption="Rescue efforts in Solai on 09/05/2018"]
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