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{
    "id": 382009,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/382009/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 191,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "able Senator from Trans Nzoia – those areas in the neighbourhood are faced with power shortages. In the feasibility study, it was also promised that so many acres of land would be put under irrigation and issues of threats to food security will be a thing of the past. We are yet to see any irrigation project under this programme, which was supposed to be the Phase II of the project. Madam Temporary Speaker, we were also promised that the residents will get clean drinking water. I believe those who live near the dam are sharing the raw water with the crocodiles and mosquitoes. It has become a tradition that when projects of this kind come up, people are not consulted. If you remember, all the projects, including the big one in Tana River, Kiambere Hydro Electric Power Station and Sondu Miriu, they have almost had false starts because people were not consulted and they were not compensated in time. Compensation came later and in quantities that really do not help those who were displaced. Why should compensation be an afterthought? Why should the Government think that when you are compensating the people who own the land, you are doing them a favour, because that is what it seems to be the case? It has become tradition that unless you complain and threaten to stop the project, you are not compensated. I think the Government should be more proactive and compensate people upfront. Unfortunately for the residents, who are the Kenyans who live around Turkwel Dam, they were never considered. Perhaps their voice did not reach the Government. But through this Senate, their plight is before the Government, and it is only right that the Government this time, although belated, compensates the communities. It has also been a tradition that when these projects are started in places where there are community lands and people are living there – of course, they do not have title deeds and you cannot compel them that unless they have a title deed, you will not be compensated them – these are the people who own the land and thanks to the new Constitution, it recognizes community land. The residents of Turkwel should be compensated in a manner that is both personal – because some families lost their livelihoods in terms of sources of food, they lost land also as a community – by putting up projects that will uplift the standards of the residents there so that they can appreciate the project, own it and also protect it. Turkwel Gorge is there today, but unless we conserve the environment, it will not survive. We have seen dams being silted and their viability going away. So, if we are to ensure sustainability, we have to compensate the people. Let them own the project so that they can protect the environment together with the Government. There are settlement schemes where people are settled in water bodies and swamps. A good example is a place like Namanjalala in Kitale where every year during the rainy season, they are flooded and they become part time Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), only to return later to meet the same mosquitoes that Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo referred to earlier. These are the areas the Government should look at because they are fragile environments and people are living precarious lives. We need health centres and support for those people to earn their livelihoods. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}