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DAM-L Sondu Miriu articles in Japan/LS (fwd)
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Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 13:27:57 -0700
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From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Sondu Miriu articles in Japan/LS
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These articles, about the Japanese-supported Sondu Miriu Dam in
Kenya, were sent by our friends at Friends of the Earth Japan.
-Lori
Dear all,
Following are news article from The Japan Times on September 1.
* Dirty waters surround Kenya dam plan
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010901b3.htm
* Suzuki denies all links with Kenyan project
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20010901b4.htm
Ikuko
-----
Dirty waters surround Kenya dam plan
Government accused of using ODA for pork-barrel politics overseas
By TOSHI MAEDA
Staff writer
A group of lawmakers will arrive in Kenya on Sunday for a two-day
inspection tour that is likely to end up endorsing a controversial
hydroelectric dam project.
After official meetings next week with Kenyan leaders who openly
support the dam, observers say the team will probably recommend
pouring an additional 10.6 billion yen in taxpayers' money into the
project.
The Japan-sponsored project has drawn accusations of pork-barreling
that benefits Japanese firms and lawmakers at the expense of the
environment, human rights and Japanese taxpayers.
These claims are seen as highlighting typical weaknesses of
foreign-aid programs -- referred to by Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka
recently as the "dark concessions" in her scandal-tainted ministry --
and have come at a time when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is
seeking ways to reduce official development assistance.
At the center of the controversy is Muneo Suzuki, a Lower House
member from the Liberal Democratic Party, who organized the trip.
Suzuki heads 16 lawmakers' groups that have close ties with African
nations, including Kenya, and will be joined by four other
representatives from the Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Suzuki's alleged involvement in the dam project has been a focus of
Diet deliberations since June with some opposition members pointing
to the lawmaker's alleged promise of aid to the Kenyan government in
1999, his personal connection with one of the successful bidders and
his political influence on African countries in general.
The Foreign Ministry backs the project, saying Kenya needs the dam,
but some in the opposition and nongovernment organizations see the
project as typical of defective ODA projects.
Political giving
The hydroelectric plant in western Kenya dates back to 1985, when
Japanese and Kenyan authorities drew up plans to supply 60,000
kilowatts to industrial areas northeast of the site.
The Kenyan government officially asked for an ODA loan in 1995. A 6.9
billion yen loan agreement for the first phase of construction was
signed by Tokyo and Nairobi two years later, with the bid going to a
multinational joint venture led by Osaka-based Konoike Construction
Co.
Suzuki visited Nairobi in August 1999 as deputy chief Cabinet secretary.
He admitted in an interview last month that, out of diplomatic
"lip-service," he promised the Kenyan government his support for a
loan agreement for the second phase, at a time when Nairobi was heavy
indebted.
A month later, the Foreign Ministry informed Nairobi that it would
extend the loan, although the Finance Ministry, questioning Kenya's
ability to pay it back, later suspended the plan.
Tatsuya Yamaguchi, one of the Foreign Ministry officials handling the
Kenya project, flatly denied earlier this week the possibility that
Suzuki's 1999 visit to Nairobi in any way influenced the ministry's
decision.
Suzuki likewise denied in the interview any commitment to the
project, claiming that the purpose of his visit was to seek the
support of Kenyan leaders for a Foreign Ministry official's UNESCO
election bid. Mentioning the project was merely part of the greeting,
he said.
The LDP lawmaker also denied exercising any political influence for
the benefit of Konoike Construction Co. He legally received 500,000
yen in political donations on three occasions, in 1997, 1998 and
1999, from the firm, according to his disclosed records.
As Suzuki indicated, the dam project was also intended to serve the
Foreign Ministry's interests.
A Foreign Ministry document dated June 29, 1999, which was obtained
by The Japan Times, says the project was "critically important from
the perspective of the UNESCO election bid."
Former Ambassador to France Koichiro Matsuura was successfully
elected as secretary general of UNESCO the following October.
In another case in which Japan may have used its ODA for political
purposes, Greenpeace and other NGOs accuse Tokyo of "having bought
the votes of many developing countries" with ODA at an International
Whaling Commission meeting held in London in July 2001.
Green project?
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry and the Japan Bank for International
Cooperation, an affiliate of the Foreign and Finance ministries, have
given the Kenyan dam project a special environment-friendly status.
This lowers the loan's interest rate and makes it a "tied" project,
which means only Japanese and Kenyan firms are allowed to join
bidding for the second phase. This limitation is to help compensate
the burden on Japanese taxpayers, the ministry explains.
A Foreign Ministry mission that visited the project site in June
found "nobody calling for the cancellation of the project," according
to its report.
Some Japanese NGOs claim, however, that Japanese authorities don't
recognize the reality in Kenya.
The NGOs say that dust raised by the construction work has caused a
range of environmental and sanitary problems, local people who were
relocated from the area have not been fully compensated and corrupt
officials have cashed in on the project.
In February 2000, two Japanese correspondents reporting on a
gathering of local people were arrested for covering an "illegal
meeting." The following December, a Kenyan freelance journalist was
reportedly shot at by local police officers and then arrested and
later charged with, among other things, inciting local residents to
oppose the project and trespassing.
Ikuko Matsumoto, a director of the Tokyo-based Friends of the
Earth-Japan, said the biggest problem is that some 50,000 residents
have never been informed of the possibility that a 10-km segment of a
local river could dry up due to the dam.
Tokyo maintains that these problems are domestic issues for Kenyan
authorities to solve.
Muddying the waters
The dam has also drawn criticism from lawmakers, who question its
cost-effectiveness.
"Construction experts are pointing out that the dam project in Kenya
could have been done at only 30 percent or 40 percent of this cost,"
said Lower House member Mitsuru Sakurai, of the Democratic Party of
Japan, the largest opposition party.
As of 1999, the whole project was estimated to cost Nairobi 20
billion yen -- about 6 percent of the country's annual budget. ODA
loans from Japan would finance 88 percent of that cost.
"It is a wasteful extension of a loan," Sakurai said, adding that
even if Japan stops now, the Kenyan government will probably ask
Japan to erase the debt.
"In any case, there will be a huge burden on Japanese taxpayers."
Nobuto Hosaka of the Social Democratic Party points to the
inscrutable nature of ODA projects.
Hosaka officially asked the government to account for the money spent
in the first phase of the Kenya project.
He was only given a vague breakdown showing that of the 6.9 billion
yen, 4.4 billion yen went to the Konoike-led venture and 1.9 billion
yen was assigned to Tokyo-based consulting firm Nippon Koei Co.
Further details -- costs for a tunnel or water-intake facilities, for
example -- cannot be provided, according to the Foreign Ministry,
which says the business belongs to Nairobi, not Tokyo.
"We want to scrutinize each and every ODA project, but figures for
that are not available," said Hosaka. "In this case, details of how
the money has been spent are not disclosed either from the Japanese
or Kenyan governments."
Hosaka claims that the Kenya dam plan is an example of a typical ODA
project: "Done by Japanese firms, for Japanese firms, with Japanese
taxpayers' money. Just like an overseas version of public works
projects."
The Japan Times: Sept. 1, 2001
(C) All rights reserved
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/
Friends of the Earth Japan
Ikuko Matsumoto
3-17-24-2F, Mejiro, Toshima-ku,
Tokyo 171-0031, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3951-1081
Fax: +81-3-3951-1084
E-mail: aid@foejapan.org
http://www.foejapan.org/aid
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network <'})))>><
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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