By Silas Apollo
At the onset of his administration, former President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an ambitious plan to set up an irrigation project that he hoped would secure the country’s food and cushion Kenyans from the devastating effects of drought.
The 10,000-acre project – located at the Coast- was set to transform farming and agriculture in general and set the pace for similar projects across the country.
Through the Galana-Kulalu irrigation project located within the Kilifi and Tana River counties, Mr Kenyatta argued that if successful, the project would pave the way for an additional one million acres of land that the government planned to put under irrigation in under five years.
The country, at the time, had been facing persistent maize and grain shortages. And so, in 2015, the Galana-Kulalu project began, intending to produce maize, sugar cane, beef, and game animals.
Additionally, the project was set to be used for farming other horticultural products, dairy animals, and products such as orchards.
The initiative was to be part of Vision 2030, conceptualized by former President Mwai Kibaki to provide a quality life for all Kenyans.
But close to a decade later and with hundreds of millions of shillings pumped into the project – not much has been realized.
Instead, what has become of the project are tales of misuse of public funds and accusations of mega corruption, which various committees in Parliament previously estimated to be hundreds of millions of shillings.
But it is not just the Galana-Kulalu project that has become the reference point to repeated failures by the government to bridge the gap on hunger and make the country more food secure.
Across the country, examples of failed projects, like the ambitious plan to construct dams in at least all of the 47 counties, abound.
The administration said it would construct about 60 dams to boost food production in the country by providing readily available water for irrigation and other needs.
What has instead been left are the daily reminders of hunger and starvation across the country even as the ongoing drought continues to ravage at least 23 counties in the Arid and Semi-Arid areas.
An estimated 3.5 million Kenyans are said to need food due to the drought, with another 4.2 million livestock said to have died in the past year alone due to the drought. This is according to statistics by the government.
Prof Gitile Naituli, a governance expert and a lecturer at the Multi-Media University, says that project failure was partly because of poor planning and execution. He adds that the failure could have resulted from a lack of priorities by the administration.
“We have witnessed over the years that government is only suitable for conceptualizing ideas. And that is why we have those flowery and glossy manifestos during campaigns. But when it comes to execution, the opposite is what happens.
“Greed has also become one of our biggest problems, especially in public service, and that is why most of these projects are riddled with graft every year,” Prof Naituli said.
At the time of inception, the dams were to help boost irrigation in the country and put additional land under farming, which the previous administration said was a move towards making the country more food reliant.
However, the government completed only a handful of such projects before Mr Kenyatta left office last year—others, such as the Kimwarer and Arror Dams, were abandoned over graft and the misuse of funds.
Other dams that have faced similar fates include the Sh38 billion Itare Dam, which benefited over 800,000 households in Kuresoi, Molo, Njoro, Rongai, and Nakuru Town.
Scandals have also rocked other agencies tasked with reserving the country’s grain basket, such as the National Cereals and Produce Board, which reportedly lost Sh1.9 billion to corrupt deals during the Jubilee administration.
On the other hand, the land on which the Galana-Kulalu project sits had been earmarked for subdivision to settle a section of squatters in the Coastal region, a proposal that President William Ruto has since rejected.
The Head of State last month directed that the land be used to prepare for maize production under a Public-Private-Partnership, adding that the government was also in the process of constructing a dam to help with the irrigation.
“After an extensive tour, with county and national government leaders, of Galana-Kulalu national food security project today, I direct as follows: the planned subdivision into settlement parcels is revoked/canceled: private-public partnership to work on the ready 10,000 to produce starting with maize in February,” Ruto said in a statement.
“The next 10,000 acres be prepared for production in 6 months under PPP: Government will construct a dam beginning April to bring another 350,000 acres under production: the government will work out a model for PPP food production in the 350k acres to be ready in 6 months. All actors are to execute timeously,” he added. (
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