Hola Irrigation Scheme farmers protest against discrimination

Malindi, Saturday June 3, 2023

KNA by Emmanuel Masha

A section of farmers within the Hola Irrigation Scheme in Tana River County have protested at an alleged discrimination in the distribution of irrigation water within the scheme.

They accused the National Irrigation Authority personnel in the scheme of diverting the water to a commercial farm owned by non-local tycoons while crops in farms owned by locals were drying up.

The farmers held a peaceful demonstration from the scheme to the Tana River County Headquarters, where they presented a petition to Deputy County Commissioner Enkaria Joseph before marching to the offices of the County Government Tana River.

They demanded the closure of the commercial farm which specialises in rice growing so that irrigation water can be fairly distributed to all farms, noting that the scheme was established to grown maize and green peas, but NIA was only concentrating on rice growing.

They demanded the immediate transfer of Scheme Manager James Kirimi and the dissolution of the Scheme Advisory Committee, accusing them of favouring farmers from Mount Kenya region at the expense of the locals.

The chairman of the Hola Irrigation Scheme Farmers Cooperative Society, Mr Adnan Umur Salim said although the government was supplying fuel to pump water from the river Tana to the farms in the scheme, crops were drying up in farms owned by locals.

“The government is bringing fuel, the machines are in good working order and the river has not dried up, we do not know where the problem is. We want to make it known that farmers within the scheme are in great trouble because NIA officials and the advisory committee are doing business with the farms,” he said.

He claimed that the advisory committee was frustrating local farmers in order to abandon their farms so that they (advisory committee) can reallocate the farms to outsiders, who then get water.

Cooperative Society Treasurer Salim Dhadho alleged discrimination in the distribution of 16,000 bags of Yara fertiliser worth Sh32 million granted to the farmers.

Society Secretary Ade Hussein Hero claimed that NIA officials were hiring out farms belonging to local farmers after frustrating the locals by denying them water for irrigation.

He said water canals leading to the commercial farm were well maintained and that the commercial farms receive water daily while crops were drying up in the farms belonging to the locals.

Addressing journalists later, Deputy County Commissioner Enkaria Joseph conceded that there had been delays getting fuel to run the water pumps at the main intake, but noted that water had been flowing into farms since Friday last week.

Mr Enkaria, who is also the chairman of the advisory committee, denied claims of discrimination, saying even the rice farmers in the commercial farm had made similar concerns after their crops started drying up due to lack of water.

He defended Mr Kirimi from the accusations, saying that the manager had managed to increase acreage in the scheme from 600 acres to more than 6,000.

 Courtesy ; K. N. A