Senate Security Committee demand Solai tragedy victims be compensated by Patel family

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A damaged residence in Solai, Nakuru County, shows the scope of destruction after a private dam burst its banks leaving scores deand and injured. PHOTO: COURTESY.

Nairobi, KENYA: Senate Committee on Security have demanded that victims who were affected by the Solai tragedy which led to the death of 47 people in the Solai dam in Nakuru County be compensated.

In a media briefing at parliamentary buildings on Tuesday, Chair of the committee Yussuf Hajji together with Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika said that the investor must compensate the victims who perished and affected as result of the tragedy which saw homes swept away last week.

Kihika said that it was not a natural calamity but a man made tragedy accusing the Patel family who are the investors accused of blocking some rivers from flowing to the larger population in the area.

“This family must compensate those people whose lives were lost and their properties damaged, because they are responsible.”Kihika said.

She said that there is need for dams in the country to be shut so as to avert further tragedies insisting that such projects must be initiated down streams to avert such calamities in the future.

The committee faulted the government for failing to bring to book the culprits who have invested in the project.

They also urged the government to take action against an agency called warmer for failing to ascertain any pose of danger by giving the project a clean bill of health.

“The owners of the farm must be held responsible in resettling these families as much as the government is giving money towards the disaster we cannot allow an individual to walk away with it ,my biggest frustration is that this person was not taken to a police station immediately.”Kihika said.

Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo urged the government to fasttrack ,investigations , evacuation and resettlement of affected people so as to allow them to go on with their normal lives and enable learning in schools .

At least 47 were dead and unknown number missing on Thursday after A Solai dam swollen by weeks of seasonal rains burst , sweeping away hundreds of homes and sending people fleeing.

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