Transport was on Monday paralysed along the busy Embu-Kiritiri-Kanyonyo road at the Machang’a area after locals blocked the road protesting the diversion of the Thiba River upstream in the neighbouring Kirinyaga County.
The irate mob lamented that the diversion of the river in Kirinyaga to ostensibly fill up Thiba Dam and irrigate rice fields had denied them access to their only source of domestic and irrigation water.
The road remained impassible for the better part of the day after the demonstrators barricaded it with rocks, tree branches and stumps.
It took the intervention of Governor Cecily Mbarire who was heading to Kiambere Ward to launch the desiltation programme of water pans ahead of the long rains season for normalcy to be restored.
“We are saying enough is enough and we will not relent until the river is unblocked and water starts flowingly normally,” Stephen Nyaga, one of the demonstrators, said.
Governor Mbarire said she was aware of their predicament and had made the necessary interventions to have normal river flow restored.
“We cannot have some few people blocking the main source of water here for almost a month. That is completely unacceptable,” she said.
She reported that her administration was in the process of instituting long terms solutions to the perennial water shortage in the area classified as ASAL.
The county boss said several boreholes would be sunk across the region and that a drilling machine had been procured to that effect.
