President William Ruto on Tuesday announced that the government will resume the building of the controversial Arror and Kimwarer dams in Elgeyo Marakawet County.

President Ruto made the surprise announcement following a lengthy meeting visiting Italian President Sergio Mattarella at State House, Nairobi.

The Head of State revealed that the Kenya and Italy government had agreed to withdraw court cases each had filed on the failed projects that were marred by claims of corruption.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta stopped the Sh63 billion dams projects in 2019 after a probe revealed a scam in which an Italian company was paid billions yet no work was done.


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“The Kenyan government will withdraw the cases filed against the companies and the Government of Italy and the contractors will also withdraw the arbitration cases,” said Ruto.

The Head of State has undertaken to restructure the funding for the construction of Arror and Kimwarer dams to pave way for work to resume on the ground in the next few months.


“The financing that was already made available is going to be restructured. We are going to clear the court issues in the next one month,” added the President.

Former Treasury CS Henry Rotich, former Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) Managing Director David Kimosop, former Chief Economist Kennedy Nyakundi, Jackson Kinyanjui and Titus Muriithi were in 2022 charged afresh with conspiracy to defraud the Kenya government more than Sh63 billion in the Arror and Kimwarer dams graft scandal.


The top officers in the previous government faced 21 charges among them abuse of office, conspiracy to defraud the government, failure to comply with tendering procedures, failure to comply with public funds management laws, engaging in projects without prior planning.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji had originally charged 24 persons over the graft scandal but dropped charges against 15, including Former Treasury PS Kamau Thugge and former EAC PS Susan Jemutai, who agreed to become be prosecution witnesses.