Stalled Nandi Dam Revived by Chinese Contractor at Triple the Cost

The long stalled Keben Dam Water Supply Project in Nandi County, shelved during former President Uhuru Kenyatta's administration, is being revived by a Chinese contractor at nearly triple its original cost after the government significantly expanded its design.

Procurement records show SINOHYDRO Corporation Limited has won the contract to build the dam, reviving a scheme that was suspended in 2019 amid fallout between Kenyatta and his then deputy William Ruto.

The revised project will involve construction of a 43 metre high earth filled dam and a water treatment plant with daily production capacity of 26,715 cubic metres, supplying drinking water to Nandi Town and surrounding urban and peri urban centres.

The Lake Victoria North Water Works Development Agency said the project will primarily benefit residents of Chesumei, Nandi Central, Nandi East and Nandi South sub-counties, with particular focus on urban and peri urban areas.

When first unveiled in May 2017, the project was estimated at 56.1 million US dollars, roughly Sh5.8 billion at the exchange rate then, covering a considerably smaller 12 metre high concrete dam and a treatment plant producing 8,000 cubic metres of water daily.

Under the newly awarded contract, the dam height has more than tripled to 43 metres, while the treatment plant's daily capacity has also more than tripled to 26,715 cubic metres.

The expanded scope has pushed the contract value to Sh23.6 billion, nearly three times the last publicly disclosed estimate of Sh7.8 billion, reflecting the larger storage and treatment capacity rather than inflation alone.

The project will be implemented under the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Financing model, under which the contractor finances, designs, builds, operates and maintains the dam before selling treated bulk water to the government.

Under this arrangement, the state will provide land, secure statutory approvals, guarantee bulk water purchases through take or pay commitments and offer agreed government support measures, including viability gap funding where necessary.

Keben was among 24 dam projects suspended by Parliament in 2019 at the height of the Arror and Kimwarer scandal, after lawmakers questioned the financing model and called for investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

The National Assembly Committee on Environment and Natural Resources halted the wider Sh188 billion dam programme at the time, with then committee chairman Kareke Mbiuki describing the financing model as exposing Kenya to expensive borrowing without adequate safeguards.

Following Ruto's ascent to the presidency in September 2022, Nandi Governor Stephen Sang and county Members of Parliament mounted a campaign to revive the project, arguing residents had been unfairly denied a transformative investment due to political fallout during the Jubilee era.