Work together to help complete SGR, leaders urged

Leaders in Naivasha have been urged to work together and help realize the completion of the construction of the second phase of the standard gauge railway.

This came as all the committees purporting to represent communities in the mega project were disbanded and a new one is set to be put in place. According SGR’s environment officer Stella Ndiwa, the project had not yet begun and dispelled rumours that youths employment was going on.

“We are currently doing what we call community sensitization and public awareness and we anticipate this project to start in the last quarter of this year”.She termed the project as key to achieving vision 2030 and called for support from all the leadership in the area that will see the second phase extend from Nairobi to Naivasha.

The senior officer was speaking during an SGR community meeting at the firm’s site in Mai Mahiu Naivasha.They agreed this at  a political leadership meeting  political to denounce the committees saying that a new one should be put up.

Nominated Senator Paul Njoroge dismissed reports that there was an active community representative committee saying the company has not started its operations yet. We planned this meeting as some of the communities here felt shortchanged but we have been assured that none has been constituted and if it there is, then the administration does not recognize it”.

He on the other side called for the distribution of all the opportunities to the tens of communities living in the area.

“If it is business or job opportunities we want a fair distribution so that all residents could feel represented in this mega project”.

Naivasha MP John Kihagi on his part said the meeting was meant to set the record straight on how the project will benefit the locals.He said that the company was setting up its base with the construction expected to begin later this year.

“We want to state here that when this project was being undertaken in other counties we did not interfere with it so the same should happen now that it is in our county”.

Speaking elsewhere NACADA chairman John Mututho said the law was clear on job distribution and urged the contractor to be mindful of it.

” We all know 70 percent of all business and job opportunities should go to all the locals in the county and this is what we want to see done in this project” He at the same time lashed at leaders who wanted to cut deals with the company saying locals should be the first to benefit from it.”I left Ksh 118M at the CDF when i was leaving and Kihagi should explain how he spent the money before purporting to represent the community in the standard gauge railway project”.

By Ednah Wambui