Resettlement Implementation in Water Projects: A Case of Northern Collector Tunnel Murang'a County

Abstract

Large-scale water projects threaten livelihood and disrupt communities due to demand for large tracts of land (Walelign & Lujala, 2022). Despite conducting social impact assessment, water projects carry unexpected twists that extend for years. This paper focused on Murang’a Northern Collector tunnel, Murang’a County in Kenya through an ex-post facto design with descriptive survey analysis. It described the impacts of resettlement restoration efforts in water projects. The total land affected by Phase 1 was about 10.766 acres disrupting around 657 people (World Bank Group, 2019). The study found that the affected persons were dissatisfied with the resettlement process. Stakeholders complained of delayed and insufficient compensation, lack of access to water in the project area, and limited public participation. A sample of 261 respondents was used to draw conclusions. The correlation coefficient for the study was R=0.886 with

P<0.001, F=163.550, and adjusted R²=0.779. This indicated that the regression model was statistically significant and resettlement implementations contribute to variation in project outcomes. In examining the individual variables most of the participants disagreed or strongly disagreed they were satisfied with the process of resettlement. The paper proposed policy change, adequate multi-stakeholder engagement and harmonization of valuation for fair compensation of land acquired during projects and livelihood restoration.