Homa bay: Hundreds of residents of the Rambira location in the Karachuonyo Constituency, Homa Bay County, are set to benefit from a Sh164 million irrigation project. The Principal Secretary (PS) for the State Department for Irrigation, CPA Ephantus Kimotho, announced that the project is expected to be completed by June this year. The project, featuring two dams, has a capacity of holding 150 million litres of water.
According to Kenya News Agency, the PS, during a tour of the project’s Okundi dam, emphasized the importance of building local community capacity to maximize the utilization of water abstracted from the dams. The project aims to provide clean water for over 20,000 livestock and irrigate more than 100 acres of farmland throughout the year. Kimotho encouraged farmers to form cooperatives to assist with market linkages, aligning with the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
Kimotho highlighted the project’s climate resilience, noting that it will impound water that might otherwise cause floods downstream and discharge into Lake Victoria. The project will supply water for drip irrigation, ensuring efficient use of every drop, with the potential for an acre under irrigation to generate up to half a million shillings per year for a farmer.
Area Member of Parliament Adipo Akuome urged locals to support and take ownership of the project to improve their living standards. He also called on the project contractor to ensure timely and fair payment for workers, noting that the project was behind schedule and needed to be expedited.
Local farmers expressed concerns about the destruction of their produce by baboons and monkeys. They called on the Kenya Wildlife Service to intervene by relocating the animals and compensating affected farmers.
