President William Ruto has announced that the construction of the Arror and Kimwarer dams in Elgeyo Marakawet County will resume.
This comes after the Kenyan government reached an agreement with the Italian government to withdraw court cases related to the botched project.
“I am happy to report that Government of Kenya and Government of Italy have agreed; in fact, the process of sorting the matters in court has started in earnest. The Kenyan government will withdraw the cases filed against the companies and the Government of Italy and the contractors will also withdraw the arbitration cases,” President Ruto said
Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had cancelled the mega project in 2019 following an investigation into a scandal involving payment of billions to an Italian firm for work that was not done.
The financing for the project will be restructured and construction is expected to resume in the next few months.
“The financing that was already made available is going to be restructured. We are going to clear the court issues in the next one month. We should be able to go on with the construction of the these dams in a matter of months,” he said.
Several individuals, including former Treasury CS Henry Rotich and former KVDA Managing Director David Kimosop, have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the government in relation to the project.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has terminated charges against some individuals who agreed to be prosecution witnesses.