Construction works will begin on High Grand Falls Dam in Kenya, Africa’s second largest dam following a resolved procurement dispute which could have delayed the project. The project will see an investment of USD two billion.
The state agency that handles disputes arising from government tendering upheld an earlier ruling that the British company that secured the contract be allowed to undertake the project. NIB cancelled the tender as only GBM Consortium had met the preliminary conditions set out in the request for proposals, including a mandatory site visit.
The construction of the High Grand Falls Dam was conceived in 2009 during former President Mwai Kibaki’s regime as part of an ambitious effort to build 1,000 water reservoirs across the country. The dam is set to produce 700 MW of hydro power and facilitate irrigation in over 250,000 ha of land Kitui, Garissa and Tana River counties.
The project is also a part of the KES 1.5 trillion Lamu Port and Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor (Lapsset) projects. It will be constructed downstream the Seven Folks dams along river Tana. The dam will have a capacity to hold over 5.6 billion cu mtr of water. The project will take six years to be completed.