Court allows Patel Dam owner to travel to India

By Festus Lang’o

A Naivasha Court has allowed Mr. Perry Mansukh Kansagara, the owner of the Patel Dam that killed 47 people in Nakuru County, to travel out of the country.

Naivasha Principal Magistrate Joseph Karanja on Tuesday temporarily allowed Mr. Mansukh to obtain his travel documents which he had surrendered in court after he was charged over the Patel Dam tragedy.

Mr. Mansukh on Friday last week sought the court’s permission to travel to India between August 9 and August 14, 2018 to attend to attend a court hearing.

The Patel dam owner told the court that he was needed in India to attend the hearing of a child custody case pitting him against his wife.

In his application, Mr. Mansukh said should he fail to attend the case in India then he is set to lose custody of his child.

The court granted his plea but ordered him to return the travel document by 10am on August 15.

Last week, a Senate Committee that was probing the Patel Dam tragedy found Mr. Mansukh responsible for the tragedy that occurred in May this year.

In the report, which was tabled in the Senate by the Committee chairman Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, the select Senate team noted that Mr. Mansukh caused the loss of 47 lives for irregularly diverting river sources in Solai into his dams.

In July, Mr. Mansukh, Vinoj Kumar (Patel farm General Manager) and Nakuru County Director of Water Johnson Kamau Njuguna were arraigned in a Naivasha Court and charged with manslaughter, neglect of official duty and failing to prepare an environment impact assessment report.

Appearing before Naivasha Principal Magistrate Joseph Karanja, the three pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on a Ksh.2.5 million cash bail.

They accused were also directed to surrender their travel documents.