President Ruto drops over 3,000 km of roads planned for construction by Uhuru
President William Ruto has scaled down over 3,000 kilometres of roads that retired President Uhuru Kenyatta planned to construct during the current fiscal year.
Among key roads that had been planned for construction but have been dropped include the dualling of the Thika-Kenol-Marua road, the construction of Arusha-Holili-Voi road and the construction of the Mau Mau Road.
This follows a backdrop of a Sh47.3billion budget cut on the government’s infrastructural projects during the financial year to June 2023, 99 percent of which affects construction of roads.
The government had proposed to drop the construction of at least 1,089km of roads across different parts of the country while 2,304km that had been lined up for rehabilitation and maintenance in the financial year to June will also be dropped.
In the original 2022/2023 budget while Uhuru was still in office, the government planned the dualling of the 27km section of Thika-Kenol-Marua road, which has been scaled down to 6.5km only in the new budget proposals before parliament.
His administration also planned the construction of the 49km Mau Mau Road but has been scaled down to 13km in the supplementary budget.
The Horn of Africa Gateway Development Project, a key road that is expected to link Kenya with Somalia and Ethiopia and boost trade among the three countries is also among roads that have been scaled down.
Uhuru’s administration had planned to build at least 98km of the road in the financial year to June, but the National Treasury reduced this by 68km.
The construction of Kisumu-Miwani-Chemelil-Muhoroni road has been scaled down from the originally planned 20km to 5km, while the planned 80km Lokichar Amosing Road will be scaled down by over 93 percent to just five kilometres.
Ngong Road footbridges will also take much longer after Treasury scaled down work on them targeting to achieve just 18 percent in the current financial year.
Treasury in the Supplementary Budget One of 2022/23 cut the total budget to the State Department for Infrastructure from Sh221.3 billion to Sh174 billion.
About 99 per cent of the Treasury’s cut on the funding for road infrastructure projects was on the development side, whose budget was reduced by Sh47.1 billion, attributing the cuts to budget rationalisation.
“Following the adjustments the National Treasury has made to the votes and programmes, some programmes have exceeded the 10 per cent threshold. The National Treasury is in this regard, requesting special approval of the expenditure adjustments which are beyond the 10 per cent threshold,” said Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u.
