Taxpayers to shoulder Sh9billion for damaged roads’ renovation
Taxpayers are set to pay billions of shillings for the renovation of roads damaged during the construction of the newly built multi-billion-shilling Nairobi Expressway.
This is after Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia revealed the Government has set aside Sh9 billion for the facelift of the old Mombasa Road.
Legislators now want the contractors to take full responsibility for damages on the old Mombasa Road, Uhuru Highway and Waiyaki Way roads.
According to legislators, putting the cost of rebuilding the road to Kenyans amounts to a waste of public funds given that the company, which destroyed the road, has already been paid for constructing the expressway.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei petitioned the Senate’s Roads and Transportation Committee to summon Macharia and Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) administration to explain why taxpayers should shoulder the cost.
“The CS, through the committee, should explain why the ministry has set aside Sh9 billion yet the contractor which is responsible for the damages on the old road and should take full responsibility,” he said.
He also wants them to explain why the costs of the construction of the Nairobi Expressway varied from an initial Sh65.2 billion to Sh72.8 billion an increase of Sh7.6 billion
Additionally, he also wants KeNHA to explain why they did not factor in the costs of rehabilitation and improvement of the old Mombasa Road in the initial cost of building the expressway.
Speaking while opening the Expressway for public use, Macharia said the facelift is for the rehabilitation and improvement of the road which was damaged due to the construction of Expressway.
The pillars supporting the upper deck sometimes smack in the middle of the old road, causing detours.
“When we do work as a result of the damage of the old road the contractor of course takes accountability for that,” he said.
“We will be putting in the Bus Rapid Transport system (BRT), cycling paths and pedestrian pathways,” he added.
Another area to be immediately addressed is the road’s drainage system that failed the test of heavy rains just recently, with storm water being drained from the upper deck down Mombasa Road through dangling pipes.
