Itare, the dam awaits

The CMC (Cooperative bricklayers and cement workers) of Ravenna, a historical cooperative founded in 1901, one of the largest Italian construction companies (550 members over six thousand employees in Italy and the rest of the world), is in difficulty for several years, so much so that in 2018 it submitted an application for an arrangement with creditors, a necessary step to avoid bankruptcy. The good news is that the Court of Ravenna last June gave the go-ahead to the homologue (accepted the request). For CMC of Ravenna the relaunch phase should begin. Meanwhile, one of the effects of the crisis is the Itare dam whose construction project was entrusted to the Ravenna cooperative.

An important project worth around 300 million euros which started thanks to an agreement between the Italian and Kenyan governments in July 2015 during the visit of the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (whose presence with the bulletproof vest under the jacket aroused some disappointment from the Kenyan authorities). The dam is expected to provide electricity to the 800,000 people living in the areas of Kuresoi, Molo, Njoro, Rongai and Nakuru. From the beginning there was a mixture of consent (for investment and work) and protest, in particular the elders of the Kipsigis, Luo, Kuria, Abagusii and Ogiek communities had opposed the project because "it would have dried up their lands". However, the works have started, but the work has stopped in the middle (exactly 30% of the state of progress). It is the effect of business difficulties that led the Kenyan authorities to freeze the cooperative's assets in Kenya, in particular assets, equipment and 98 vehicles.

The consequence was a paralysis of the works not only with regard to Itare, but also the other two dams (Arror and Kimwarer) whose works worth 480 million euros have not even started. Then there is the chapter relating to the contract with which the CMC was awarded the works for which the Minister of Finance Henry Rotich was arrested in July 2019 for corruption together with other 20 officials, also the leaders of the Ravenna cooperative under investigation , the process of which is still ongoing.

Then there are the effects on the workers and on all the local commerce, 2,500 people worked in the dam alone, who have been waiting for their salaries for almost two years. The dam was supposed to become operational in 2021, but in the meantime cows, goats and sheep graze in the depths of the valleys dug to make room for construction, while high up on the hill, the torn shreds of the Kenyan and Italian flags fly.


Fabrizio Floris
NP December 2020