Kura shifts goalposts again on delayed Kasarani – Mwiki road repairs
Motorists plying the Kasarani – Mwiki road route will have to wait much longer for the dilapidated road to be repaired.
This is after the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), in a statement on Thursday, said that the bidding documents will be submitted at the end of February.
“The contract for the Rehabilitation of the 3.6KM section of Kasarani-Mwiki Road is out with site visit on 18th Feb, 2020. Bidding documents to be submitted by 27th Feb, 2020,” Kura said.
The latest shift comes days after the Authority blamed the heavy rains for the delay in commencing repairworks on the road that is in a deplorable state.
“We wish to inform the public that repair works along the 2km section of Kasarani-Mwiki road is set to commence before the end of this week. We hope the ongoing rains will subside as predicted,” Kura said last week.
Last month, Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja said he had agreed with Kura that a contractor will be on site in the “next one hour” to repair the dilapidated road. This was not to be.
Commuter matatus operators that ply the route last week threatened to down their tools again, barely three weeks after staging a four-day crippling strike to protest the poor state of the roads.
The matatu saccos claimed they were duped into resuming their operations by Sakaja, who at the time promised to have a contractor immediately commence repairs of the poor road.
Nairobi News has established that the only work that has been done on the 5km stretch is the digging of roadside trenches.
During the meeting held three weeks ago, also attended by Sakaja and top security officers from the DCI, Kura committed to have a contractor on site within one hour to commence road works.
Kura Acting Director General Cyrus Kinoti, said the authority was aware of the state of all roads in Nairobi and other towns.
Kinoti pledged to embark on pending repairs as soon as the rains subside, noting that the Kasarani-Mwiki road had been allocated Sh300 million of the Sh1.7 billion set aside for city road repairs.
Sakaja later accompanied the contractor and together with the Presidential Delivery Unit, promised to personally monitor the progress of the planned repairs.
Public transport was paralysed in Kasarani and Mwiki areas for four days as matatu operators ceased offering their services over the sorry state of the road.
During the resutant demonstraitions, police used teargas and a water cannon to disperse the angry protesters who had barricaded the roads leaving one person dead and several others injured.