Itare Dam, one of the flagship projects that had been identified by the Government of Kenya as a priority project, is now essentially comatose.
And with it the hopes of reliable water supply for 800,000 residents of Nakuru, Molo, Njoro, Elburgon, Rongai and parts of Kuresoi are rapidly fading.
The dam stalled after CMC di Ravenna, an Italian firm, which won the tender in 2014, filed for bankruptcy in 2018 in Italy, after sinking billions of shillings in the construction work.
In December 2019, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) launched an inquiry into the Itare affair after claims of massive corruption. Several former board members of Rift Valley Water Works Development Agency and top government officials in the Ministry of Water and Sanitation were summoned to record statements over alleged corruption. But not much has been heard of the matter lately.
The project would have comprised a 57m high dam, 100,000m3/day water treatment works, 1.2m diameter 113-km pipeline, 14.5km Bulk Transfer tunnel, water distribution improvement works, sewerage network and treatment works. The estimated cost was in excess of Kes 38b.
Land owners around the Itare site who had leased some of their land to CMC di Ravenna to set up temporary working stations reportedly now want the insolvent company to remove its machinery from their land as it has not paid them the agreed lease fees for a while.
