Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 381964,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381964/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "the presence of this water. Initially, people did not know the impact of this water because, as you know, that area is quite in the interior of West Pokot; very few people have gone to school there and they did not know the effect of the construction of this dam. Displacing 1,700 human beings without being resettled by the Government on alternative land is a tragedy. Today, we have homeless people living in the hills as a result of the presence of this huge dam. I am told that today, the dam covers 46 kilometres of land. It is no longer a dam. It is turning out to be a real lake because from the middle of the dam, the largest diameter is 15 kilometres for you to cross. The effect of this is that families were separated by the water by force as those ones across in North Pokot could not meet with those in West Pokot District. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am told that when people were moved, some little money was given and it was said: “Let us count; if you have any beehive, we will give you Kshs400.” How many people will keep bees in Pokot land where you keep animals? So, that was not supposed to be treated as compensation. Secondly, anybody who was living in a grass thatched hut was given Kshs1,400. The land was not paid for. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, anybody who had a hotel or even a shop owner, these amenities were present by the shores of the River Suam, which now turned out to be this Turkwel Dam, were not compensated. There were many shop owners because of the presence of gold. There was a lot of gold harvesting in that river. So, when the water came, it also cut off all the livelihood of the people who were depending on gold harvesting. There were very many Kenyans, not necessarily from that county, but from Turkana, western Kenya and other parts of the country who were prospecting for gold. Now, the gold mining is gone. Nobody can measure the amount of gold that was in the ground. I think it is in terms of millions. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when the dam was built, two scenarios emerged; mosquitoes came in their thousands and in their millions."
}