Members of the National Assembly Special Funds Accounts Committee were baffled after discovering that a contractor had gone missing for more than a year after receiving Ksh5 billion as part of a contract payment.
The team which included Endebbes MP Robert Pokosse, Kapenguria Counterpart Mark Mark Lomunokol and Kuria's Marua Kitayama had gone to inspect the stalled Muruny-Siyoi Water Dam in West Pokot County on Tuesday, November 10.
Pokosse disclosed that on arrival at the scene, they found that the project was only 10% complete even though the contractor had received half the funds to facilitate its construction.
The lawmaker further revealed that the construction had stalled in March 2019 without any explanation whatsoever.
"One of the projects that we found having been allocated Ksh100 million from the Equalisation Fund is the Muruny-Siyoi Dam. This project has two components. In lot one, it is the dam component which is estimated to cost Ksh5.05 billion and the distribution that costs Ksh4.1 billion.
"What we have is that on the dam component is at 10% complete and has been abandoned since last year in March. No work is ongoing yet the contractor has been paid around Ksh2.7 billion and on the distribution component he has been paid Ksh3 billion," stated the lawmaker.
Lomunokol noted that the project was started in 2015 and that the committee was worried over its progress despite the contractor having pocketed deposit.
"We will be reporting to Parliament as a committee and we have noted a lot of concerns," he remarked.
Kuria agreed with his colleagues' assertions noting that the committee would put relevant leaders on the hot seat to explain the strange development in the project's implementation.
In its inception, the project was aimed at supplying over 450,000 people with clean water in the largely semi-arid West Pokot region.
The project was expected to be completed in 2018 after which it would produce 38,000 cubic meters of water per day.
It was part of flagship projects by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto and was launched in 2015 by the Head of State.
