DPP's Detailed Breakdown of the Dams Scandal

DPP, Noordin Haji, on Monday ordered the arrest of top government officials in relation to the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal that rocked the country.

A report by Daily Nation has broken down a step by step process on how the scandal was planned and executed from the govt offices.

First, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) purported to have carried out the Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA), which gave nod to the projects but there was no evidence that it was ever carried out.

The National Treasury then released Ksh643 million for the compensation and resettlement of people who were affected by the projects, yet there wasn't any evidence that the land had been acquired.

According to the report, the officials then ignored complaints from the Kenya Forest Services officials over the excision of forest lands to build dams.

Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA), used the public procurement and disposal act of 2005, rather than the 2013 Public-Private partnership Act in contracting CMC di Ravenna, despite knowing that the firm was facing voluntary liquidation back in Italy.

Government official awarded the Italian firm the tender to construct the dams, knowing that it had three other projects that were either incomplete or yet to begin.

With the commercial contract with CMC di Ravenna stating that the cost would be Ksh43 billion, National Treasury negotiated an increased loan on Ksh63 billion.

The contracted firm then took its time delivering the dam designs in February of 2019, four years behind schedule.

Treasury is further being accused of paying Ksh11 billion insurance yet government guarantee would have cost the taxpayers nothing.

They further borrowed ksh4.6 billion over the principal amount to pay for the interest in advance during the construction period, meaning the government borrowed a loan to pay interest for the first loan.

CS Henry Rotich and his team then went ahead to borrow a loan of Ksh61 billion for the construction of the dams, which was transferred directly to individual accounts rather than the Consolidated Fund.

By January 2019, the government had paid Ksh19,714,366,991 as advanced payment, commitment fee, insurance and other costs, yet no work has begun so far.

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