Committee to summon CS over 70M dormant Water Hyacinth Harvest Machine in Kisumu.

 Parliamentary Select Committee on Regional Integration members inspect the water hyacinth machine at Kisumu inland deport.The Committee will summon Environment CS to shade more light on why the machine is not working three years since it was purchased-Photo By  Dickson Odhiambo.

By Dickson Odhiambo

October 30, 2018.

Committee to summon CS over 70M dormant Water Hyacinth Harvest Machine in Kisumu.

A PARLIAMENTARY Select Committee has said it will soon summon a cabinet Secretary before it to come and shade more light on the issue of water hyacinth harvest machine that is not working and parked at Kisumu inland port.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Regional Integration and Northern Corridor says there is need to summon the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Environment and Natural Resources Keriako Ole Tobiko and his Principal Secretary so as to come and shade more light before it on why the machine which was procured by the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project {LVEMP II}.

Addressing the press in Kisumu today after holding discussion with the top Management of the Lake Victoria Basin Commission {LVBC} when visiting the Agencies of the East African Community {EAC} in the country, the Committee led by its chairman Dr Gideon Ochanda says they have taken seriously the issue of the water hyacinth harvesting machine that was purchased at an estimated cost of 70 million three year ago and is not working.

The Committee says it will write a report in regard to their tour and one of the issues which will be included will be the one for the water hyacinth harvesting machine which has been lying idle since it was purchased three years ago for the removal of the dreaded water hyacinth in Lake Victoria.

It says after concluding the report and presenting to parliament, it will then summon the Caninet Secretary and his Principal Secretary for questioning in regard to the purchase of the machine.

The Committee says the management of the Lake Victoria Environment Management Project II has confirmed that the machine is not working because it lacks some hooks which is to be used for the removal of the hyacinth.

“ We have been made to understand that the water hyacinth machine is not working because it has not been fixed with hooks to make it work properly for the purpose of removing the hyacinth in the Lake Victoria,” Says Dr. Ochanda, the Chair of the Committee.

According to the Committee, they have further been briefed that the machine requires about 2 to 3 million for it to work after the things missing in it are fixed.

However, a senior officer with the LVEMP II Eng Isaac Ngugi, an Agriculture Specialist with LVEMP II Kenya was hard pressed to explain how and why it procured a water hyacinth harvester machine that is not working.

The machine was procured in the year 2016 purposely for the removal of the Water Hyacinth which then choked the Lake Victoria especially the Winam Gulf but has never been used to do so since then. 

The committee further says it has been told that the machine can remove the water hyacinth of 3 hectares within eight hours.

The issue of the water hyacinth machine comes barely a few weeks after the dreaded water hyacinth made a comeback within the Lake Victoria in Kisumu with a lot of vengeance while covering most parts of the Lake thereby paralyzing transport and fishing activities within the Lake Victoria.

Other members of the Committee who accompanied Dr. Gideon Ochanda include Dr. Eve Obara, Tandaza Sawa and Mathews Robi.

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