One-million-acre irrigation scheme stalls
Agriculture Parliamentary committee chairman Kareke Mbiuki. Mbiuki said the ambitious one million-acre Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme in Kilifi has stalled due to lack of funds. The project that was officially launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in January, had not received any money, while Sh3 billion allocated to the National Irrigation Board for other programmes had been slashed by the Treasury. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- Mr Mbiuki said NIB had received only Sh12 billion during the 2013-14 budgetary allocation, before the amount was reduced to Sh9 billion.
- He said the money was not enough as it had already been allocated to various projects, including the one million hectare nationwide irrigation scheme, before the Galana-Kulalu project was launched.
- He proposed an emergency supplementary budget or diversion of the Sh25billion meant for the laptop project to salvage NIB programmes.
The ambitious one million-acre Galana-Kulalu Irrigation Scheme in Kilifi has stalled due to lack of funds, the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee has said.
Committee chairman Kareke Mbiuki said the project, officially launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in January, had not received any money, while Sh3 billion allocated to the National Irrigation Board for other programmes had been slashed by the Treasury.
He said the contractor had already abandoned work on the model project due to accumulation of debts.
Speaking at Iruma Primary School when he and Agriculture PS Sicily Kariuki inspected progress of the Muringa Banana Irrigation Project in his Maara constituency, Mr Mbiuki said NIB had received only Sh12 billion during the 2013-14 budgetary allocation, before the amount was reduced to Sh9 billion.
WALK THE TALK
He said the money was not enough as it had already been allocated to various projects, including the one million hectare nationwide irrigation scheme, before the Galana-Kulalu project was launched.
“The project did not receive even a coin. Then the little that NIB had was taken away by the Treasury. Nothing is happening there. Only bush clearing and a few infrastructures have been put up. NIB is struggling since it is unable to pay contractors,” said Mr Mbiuki.
The Maara MP questioned the Jubilee government commitment to the aspiration to put more land under irrigation.
“We want the Jubilee government to walk the talk. If they say they will put one million acres under irrigation, they should fund it. We don’t want this project to fail as happened to Bura irrigation scheme; we want it to become a reality. Kenya farmers are hardworking and all they need is support,” said Mr Mbiuki.
He proposed an emergency supplementary budget or diversion of the Sh25billion meant for the laptop project to salvage NIB programmes.
He said the project was set to put up 500,000 acres of land under maize production, 200,000 acres under sugarcane farming, 150,000 acres on beef and game animals, 50,000 acres under horticulture, 50,000 acres to dairy farming and the remaining 50,000 acres will be used to grow fruits.
Once completed, the project is anticipated the reduced human-wildlife conflict by forming a buffer zone between Tsavo East National Park and the local communities.
