A cloud of anxiety has engulfed areas of Tharaka and Kitui as the government seals a deal on the construction of the proposed Sh425 billion High Grand Falls Dam project.
Yesterday, the Government of Kenya signed a Project Development Agreement with a British construction firm that has been awarded the tender and in six months, it will be known the number of residents who will be relocated to a place yet to be revealed by the government.
The agreement seen by the media was signed by National Irrigation Authority and the GBM Engineering Consortium.
The British contractor is set to set up camps in Tharaka and Kitui so that he can start preparations including updating a feasibility study which was done back in 2012.
The dam will be built at the confluence of Mutonga and Tana Rivers and will have a reservoir covering an area of more than 165 square kilometers mainly in Tharaka constituency.
The first feasibility study showed that about six locations in Tharaka constituency would be covered by the dam that will provide more than 5600 million, cubic metres of water to irrigate 400,000 hectares.
The earlier government report also indicated that Tharaka residents who will be affected by the dam would be relocated to Tana River County but local political leaders opposed arguing that they should be given adequate monetary compensation so that they can buy land within the constituency.
The leaders also suggested that they be relocated to Kathangacini areas in Tharaka North Sub County where the population is very low.
“We want our people to be given adequate monetary compensation so that they can sort out themselves and not relocate to another county,” noted Tharaka MP Gitonga Murugara in a past statement.
Most of the locals and especially those from Tharaka constituency are opposed to the dam citing disturbance from their ancestral lands.
