Kenya snubs Israeli firm in Galana-Kulalu tender award

The government has awarded the Galana-Kulalu model farm tender to a new contractor, ending the tenure of the Israeli firm that has been fighting to have its tenancy reinstated.

Irrico Kenya was awarded the Sh797 million tender for the completion of the model farm after the Ministry of Water terminated Green Arava’s contract.

The new contractor is expected to start work mid this month with the completion date of next June.

“We have a new contractor on the site who is expected to carry on with the remaining works at the model farm,” said Daniel Nzonzo, senior communications officer at the National Irrigation Authority (NIA).

The contractor will be required to rehabilitate the water intake at the farm and install additional pumps to cater for the entire model farm.

The Israel government said in March it started talks with the national and county governments of Tana River and Kilifi to have their contractor resume work at the Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme.

However, the government insisted that it would not reinstate their contract as the contractor had demonstrated failure in the completion of the project.

The dispute between irrigation agency and Green Arava arose from the amount that the contractor claimed to be owed by the NIA, which says that it was far too much from the actual figure. The contractor claimed that NIA owed them Sh1 billion, but the agency claimed it owed the contractor Sh200 million.

The Galana project was supposed to have been opened up for large scale production under the Private Public Partnership by now as the model farm, which is a demonstration block that covers 10,000 acres was to be completed by 2018.

About 7,000 acres have been cultivated to date with 3,000 acres put under crop last year.

The NIA said production of the current season is ongoing with 5,100 acres expected to be put under crop by next April.

Top government officials who visited the farm last week said they would allow private investors to invest in the farm next year once the model farm has been completed.

The project is part of the government’s long-term commitment to diversify Kenya’s agriculture to include irrigation, instead of the current over-reliance on rain-fed farming.