Ethiopia denies Kenya’s allegations on Gibe Dams Project

Ethiopian government has come openly to deny the claims that they used military approach to start the Gibe Dams Project. This was disclosed last week Friday by the Ethiopian Ambassador to Kenya, Dina Mufti.

In his statement, Ambassador Mufti claimed that issues related to Kenya and Ethiopia are always tabled before the two parties before any action is taken, and that there has never been a time Ethiopian government breach any international agreement or dealing – most especially with her neighbour, Kenya.

However, a lot of environmentalists strongly kicked against this as they believe the dam project along Omo River is being forced through by the Ethiopian government without considering its side effects on the natural habitats of the area – most especially the sea creatures. Some of them claimed that the government failed to strategize on how to minimize this hazard before considering acting on the project.

“In its rush to develop its resources it has not developed strategies to minimize the impact on those living downstream,” said Felix Horne, the head of Arica Research at HRW.

To clear the air, Mufti, in his interview with the press, said, “The two countries have been in regular consultations regarding the Gibe project from its inception and have been determined to resolve any concern through cooperation. It is under the above mentioned mechanisms that the two countries have been working together to protect the common natural resource of Lake Turkana.”

He therefore termed the allegation as baseless and called for the public and stakeholders to discard it.

“This is a baseless allegations concocted against the Gibe project that the Ethiopian government is undertaking for only generation of hydropower. Ethiopia and Kenya have Joint mechanisms called Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) and Joint Border,” he further said.