The Solai Dam that burst its banks in May, killing 47 people was not licensed and therefore was illegal, Water Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui told a Senate committee yesterday.
Testifying before the ad hoc committee investigating the May 9 tragedy, Chelugui said the only document in their records was the permit allowing Salt Manufacturers
permission to erect a weir to divert water to the dam on the Patel farm in Nakuru.
“We were shocked because there is a contradiction between what is on the ground and what is in the records,” Chelugui told the committee chaired by Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr at County Hall, Nairobi,
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The operator of the dam was only permitted to abstract the water by a weir of 2.5 meters high, he said. A weir is a low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow.
The CS said the Water Resources Management Authority (Warma) has no report about the dam, adding that there could have been collusion between government officials and the dam owners.
The Solai dam is one of six on a farm owned by Mansulkul Patel.
It
also emerged that Warma has never inspected the dam since 2009 and no report
on the dam has been filed at the water agency .
Senators Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo), Johnson Sakaja (Nairobi) and Susan Kihika (Nakuru)
accused Warma CEO Mohamed Shurie of incompetence and asked Chelugui to take action against him and all other individuals involved in actions or omissions that caused the accident.
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The senators expressed concern that although the Warma officers knew that the Patel dam was illegal, they did not informed the relevant authorities to take the necessary action.
“We are beholden to people who do not know what they want. They have never reported they were denied access to the farm and never gave the true picture of what happens at the farm,” Sakaja said.
Mutula said Warma failed in its mandate to carry out periodic monitoring based on the owner's report on how developers are operating and maintaining the dams on the property.
Today Kenya Red Cross boss Abbas Gullet has been called to testify before the committee and describe the challenges they encountered as they were among the first rescuers to respond to the disaster call.
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