Karimenu Dam landowners in threat to drown project

Hundreds of landowners who ceded their parcels to facilitate construction of Sh24 billion Karimenu II Dam in Gatundu North, Kiambu County have threatened to paralyze economic activities in the constituency in a new push for their compensation.

A year since the mega water body was commissioned and began supplying water to Nairobi and Ruiru residents, the residents are yet to be compensated for the land surrendered and damages therein.

Among the troubled residents are those living around the dam’s buffer zone and who decried that water from the huge dam had begun to enter their homes, having already submerged their plantations including maize, bananas, napier grass among other crops.

They decried that some homes were no longer habitable after they developed huge cracks that residents blame on the close proximity to the dam while most lavatories in the villages have caved in as a result of being filled with water from the project.

Speaking after a meeting at Buchana Coffee Factory, the affected residents took issue with the government for taking them round in circles and occasionally hoodwinking them that they would be paid to facilitate their relocation.

“The government has been lying to us year in year out. They are waiting for a tragedy to happen for them to rush and do what is rightful- compensating the affected to facilitate their relocation. It’s sad that we have been speaking to deaf ears,” Paul Mwangi, a member of the committee representing the landowners told journalists.

They gave the government an ultimatum of two weeks failure to which they will resort to staging street protests that will paralyze movements around major roads including the newly put up Thika-Magumu highway.

Already, most of the elderly persons in the affected Kiriko, Gathanji, Gituamba, and Iruri villages have begun developing psychological shock, arthritis, Malaria among other diseases which they blame for their continued stay near the dam.

While demanding full acquisition of their small portions of land for seamless relocation, the residents at the same time insisted that the government should resurvey their land and freshly valuate crops therein to align with the current economic situation that has seen the shilling weaken against the dollar. This, they said, will enable them to purchase land in the neighboring community and whose value they stated as having appreciated drastically.

With increased cost of living that has seen prices for all basic commodities hit the roof, the residents insisted that the government must consider that land prices have similarly skyrocketed and as such, their parcels must be acquired using the current market rates.

“We want to be compensated for the land we surrendered to government using the current land market rates. You have all seen that the shilling is growing weaker against the dollar day in day out. Land value has also continued to appreciate and as such, it will be hard to find cheap land in the neighbourhood. Let the government do what is right,” Simon Nguyai, a resident said.

The government has been seeking to acquire around 600-acre land surrounding the waterbody to protect the dam’s ecosystem and facilitate control of possible pollution of the water resource through plantation of trees.

Last year, Water Cabinet Secretary Zachary Njeru told journalists that the government has set aside Sh150 million allocation in the supplementary budget to move the affected residents. He said some 122 locals from 34 households whose properties including land and homes have already been submerged will be compensated and relocated.