Leaders from West Pokot County have given a one-week ultimatum to Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) in Turkwel to allow construction of Turkwel secondary school.
Led by Kapenguria MP Samuel Moroto, the leaders said the community has not benefited from KenGen and urged the national government to intervene and solve the row that may soon erupt between the community and the company.
He added that KenGen has stopped the construction of a secondary school at Turkwel which aims to accommodate students and eradicate cattle rustling between Pokot and Turkana community.
Moroto pointed out that construction of a secondary school should be part of community social responsibility CSR by the company.
“KenGen has been a loss to the community, they are not implementing any CSR activities, they stopped funding to educate children in this place they should just vacate if they are not going to help the community,” said Moroto.
He added that KenGen is being managed poorly and asked the Cabinet Secretary for Energy Charles Keter to visit the area before residents protest. He noted that after one week if they’ll not allow construction to go on, they’ll forcefully set up the school.
Sigor MP Philip Rotino said KenGen had become so bossy, “They have not constructed even a health centre. We regret the fact that we donated community land for the construction of the company,” he said. Rotino said construction of the school aimed to eradicate cattle rustling between the Pokot and Turkana communities.
School principal Elijah Obach said the construction has stalled for three months after KenGen management told them to halt the construction and evacuate from the premise. “We were given Kshs 500,000 from CDF to construct the school, after grading the ground, KenGen management and GSU officers stopped the construction,” said Obach.
The Leaders were speaking at Turkwel during a peace meeting that brought together Pokot and Turkana communities.
