Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka has for the first time spoken about the 425 billion High Grand Fall dam set to be built in Kitui, Tana River, and Tharaka Nithi counties.
Taking credit for the project, Kalonzo revealed that he initiated the project during the Late President Kibaki’s tenure when he was the Vice President as one of the vision 2030 flagship projects. Kalonzo said that it was delayed by the Uhuruto government and lauded President Ruto for the first time for signing an agreement with the UK government concerning the dam that will be of great benefit to the people of Kitui, Tharaka Nithi, and Tana River counties.
“The High Grand falls is a vision 2030 project, me and Kibaki said that it is the dam that will strip poverty from our people in Kenya. It will generate 650 MegaWatts of Electricity, we will also be able to irrigate using the water from the dam in Kitui and Tana River. I praise President Ruto for once because he has tried through the matter of climate change and I will support him because the Grand Falls Project is my project, the Jubilee Government delayed it” Kalonzo said.
The Wiper party leaders revealed that there were tussles during the Jubilee government that forced the project not to be commenced by the UK government but he is glad that President Ruto is ready to implement it.
“There were differences on who should eat more money from the project, it is now the time for the project to begin. I would like to ask the UK government, not to backside on implementing the project,” he added.
Kalonzo requested the government not to evict the people of Kitui and Tharaka and take them to the game park without compensating them. He said that the people of Thagicu and Ciambiu in Mwingi North should be given adequate compensation to go and look for the places they would like to settle instead of evicting them and forcing them to vacate the nearby game reserves.
“I am 100 percent with President Ruto’s government concerning the High Grand Falls project because our people in Kitui, Tharaka, and Tana River are the chief beneficiaries of the project and there will be no more flooding in our areas,” the Wiper leader stated.
Following an agreement reached by President William Ruto and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on 7th November 2022, the new multipurpose dam is set to be built in the counties of Kitui and Tharaka Nithi at 425 billion.
The construction of the dam, the second-most expensive infrastructure project in Kenya after the standard gauge railway, is one of six projects totaling Sh500 billion that would be expedited under a new UK agreement struck off-site from the COP27 climate conference taking place in Egypt.