Solio Water Brings Hope, Prosperity To Former Squatters
Updated on: Oct 06, 2020
Solio settlement scheme is finally on the verge of transformation. Exactly a decade after settling on the parched, barren 15,000-acre parcel of land, about 3,000 households can now actualize the dream of becoming millionaires.
The county government has announced that by October 30 2020, the first 1,500 house-holds, approximately half of the household in the scheme, will be connected to running water.
Every household in each of the seven villages will be connected by the end of the year.
By last week a total of 1,386 household had applied for last mile connection. 1,042 households had been metered. The county government of Laikipia and Water Sector Trust Fund co-funded the Kes 143 mil-lion project.
Presence of reliable water supply in Solio Settlement Scheme is a dream come true for many residents. It has been a long journey for the inhabitants of Solio.
Before Kenyas independence, scores of families were displaced by colonial settlement. Others were deliberately disposed during land demarcation exercise in 1950s for their association with freedom fighters. By the time of independence many of those displaced lived in slums in government forests.
In 1989, the government evicted all those living in its forests. Informal settlements on roadsides cropped up. Those affected were in Chehe, Hombe, Ragati and Kagochi on the slopes of Mt Kenya and Zaina, Kabage and Gakanga in the Aberdare Ranges.
In the early days of President Kibakis regime, First Lady Lucy Kibaki visited one of the informal settlements near Hombe Forest in Mathira constituency and was appalled by the living conditions.
Mrs Kibaki, who passed on in 2016, initiated discussions with the Government on the resettlement of the families. The government eventually bought 15,000 acres from Solio ranch and more than 2000 families were settled there in 2009.
The scheme was designed in seven villages. Each was given four-and-a-half acres. The detached half-acre was for settlement and the four for farming. It was a swathe of treeless land. There was no water and the few boreholes had salty water. Some of the new settlers lost hope, sold their land and went away. Many persevered. They planted trees and kept animals as they pushed to be given water.
It has been a long and hard journey, but finally there is hope, Mohamed Said said.
Their wait has not been in vain. The water is here. Like any other infrastructure, water is a great enabler of social economic trans-formation. A similar transformation is expected in Laikipia North where Makurian water project is taking shape. It will deliver water to thousands of homesteads. The project will reduce the time and distance residents cover in search of quality water and enable them to increase incomes.
For Solio, metre connections distribution is as follows; Furaha-115, Rehema-190, Ba-hati-189, Tetu- 194, Mathingira-102, Maka-damia-128 and Baraka-124. Productivity is expected to increase.
The project will provide access to clean and safe water for domestic use to 3,970 households translating to a population of 19,850 people and 11,040 grade cows, 22,380 goats, 7 primary schools with 2,240 pupils, 2 secondary schools with 160 students, and 1 health centre among other facilities.
Growing of oranges, onions and vegetable within the Solio belt will be real. Establishment of quality beef through feedlots technology is now possible. Dairy production is expected to increase phenomenally. This will increase incomes and improve their standards of living for scores of families that lived in abject poverty just ten years ago. And in their hearts and among their scions, they will ever be grateful to Mama Lucy Kibaki and her scion that carried on her legacy project to fruition.
The county government has announced that by October 30 2020, the first 1,500 house-holds, approximately half of the household in the scheme, will be connected to running water.
Every household in each of the seven villages will be connected by the end of the year.
By last week a total of 1,386 household had applied for last mile connection. 1,042 households had been metered. The county government of Laikipia and Water Sector Trust Fund co-funded the Kes 143 mil-lion project.
Presence of reliable water supply in Solio Settlement Scheme is a dream come true for many residents. It has been a long journey for the inhabitants of Solio.
Before Kenyas independence, scores of families were displaced by colonial settlement. Others were deliberately disposed during land demarcation exercise in 1950s for their association with freedom fighters. By the time of independence many of those displaced lived in slums in government forests.
In 1989, the government evicted all those living in its forests. Informal settlements on roadsides cropped up. Those affected were in Chehe, Hombe, Ragati and Kagochi on the slopes of Mt Kenya and Zaina, Kabage and Gakanga in the Aberdare Ranges.
In the early days of President Kibakis regime, First Lady Lucy Kibaki visited one of the informal settlements near Hombe Forest in Mathira constituency and was appalled by the living conditions.
Mrs Kibaki, who passed on in 2016, initiated discussions with the Government on the resettlement of the families. The government eventually bought 15,000 acres from Solio ranch and more than 2000 families were settled there in 2009.
The scheme was designed in seven villages. Each was given four-and-a-half acres. The detached half-acre was for settlement and the four for farming. It was a swathe of treeless land. There was no water and the few boreholes had salty water. Some of the new settlers lost hope, sold their land and went away. Many persevered. They planted trees and kept animals as they pushed to be given water.
It has been a long and hard journey, but finally there is hope, Mohamed Said said.
Their wait has not been in vain. The water is here. Like any other infrastructure, water is a great enabler of social economic trans-formation. A similar transformation is expected in Laikipia North where Makurian water project is taking shape. It will deliver water to thousands of homesteads. The project will reduce the time and distance residents cover in search of quality water and enable them to increase incomes.
For Solio, metre connections distribution is as follows; Furaha-115, Rehema-190, Ba-hati-189, Tetu- 194, Mathingira-102, Maka-damia-128 and Baraka-124. Productivity is expected to increase.
The project will provide access to clean and safe water for domestic use to 3,970 households translating to a population of 19,850 people and 11,040 grade cows, 22,380 goats, 7 primary schools with 2,240 pupils, 2 secondary schools with 160 students, and 1 health centre among other facilities.
Growing of oranges, onions and vegetable within the Solio belt will be real. Establishment of quality beef through feedlots technology is now possible. Dairy production is expected to increase phenomenally. This will increase incomes and improve their standards of living for scores of families that lived in abject poverty just ten years ago. And in their hearts and among their scions, they will ever be grateful to Mama Lucy Kibaki and her scion that carried on her legacy project to fruition.
