Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga on Thursday made an urgent trip to the coast following disputes over multi-billion Galana-Galana-Kulalu irrigation project.
For the past two years, questions have been asked over the multi-billion project, which was destined to remedy acute food shortages in Tana River County and surrounding environs.
Area Governor Dhadho Godhana and neighboring Kilifi county boss Amason Kingi ushered in Mr Odinga, who will inspect it and give recommendations.
Mr Odinga has been helping President Uhuru Kenyatta in infrastructural development, a move that has often caused anxiety in government.
The contractor, Green Arava from Israel, has been embroiled in a tussle with National Irrigation Board, leading to unprecedented delays.
“We have reached a point of no return. We cannot continue with more payments for work whose progress we are not pleased with. We have written to the National Treasury so that they can advise on a way forward,” Charles Muasya, the head of design and planning of irrigation projects at the National Irrigation Board, told the Saturday Nation.
Initially, the project was to run for 30 months, with March 9, 2017 set as the completion date. After failing to meet the deadline, Green Arava requested an extension of the contract to January 2018, but again failed to deliver.
In September last year, the firm asked for another extension to finalise by April 2019.
However, the firm has not situated any construction machinery.Instead, on January 17, Noam Ftecha, a project manager at Green Arava, wrote to NIB blaming the agency for the woes facing the project and claiming it would only continue if its needs are met.
The January 17 letter followed another dated November 30, 2018 in which Green Arava said “the major impediment to the performance of the contract has been a sustained failure by the employer (NIB) to honour payments as and when they fall due.”