Bungoma residents up in arms over road project stalled 7 years
A grader belonging to a Chinese contractor as pictured on Misikhu-Brigadier road.
What you need to know:
- The road is crucial as it connects many farmers to markets where they sell their goods, but it is usty during the dry season and impassable and muddy during the rainy season, hence the protest.
Bungoma residents want the sacking of a contractor awarded the tender for Misikhu-Brigadier road, citing huge delays in the project.
Their complaints are to the national and county governments, which launched construction of the Sh1.3 billion, 45-km road in 2016.
The road is crucial as it connects many farmers to markets where they sell their goods, but it is dusty during the dry season and impassable and muddy during the rainy season, hence the protest.
Fred Waswa, a boda boda rider, wants the road completed before the rainy season.
Judith Simiyu from Namarambi village faulted previous governments, saying they all failed to keep their promises regarding the road.
“The dust has been a problem. It makes people’s lives difficult as they can’t wash their clothes and school children get persistent coughs,” she said.
Addressing journalists in the past on the state of the road, Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka expressed his dissatisfaction with the work of the contractor, whom he said had already been paid.
"The contractor is too slow and has let us down. We now want Roads CS Kipchumba Murkomen to remove him and give us another one," he said.
Former Roads Cabinet Secretary James Macharia raised this case on May 19, 2022, while announcing that a new contractor would be taking over.
Mr Macharia, who was accompanied by the then Defense CS Eugene Wamalwa, at the time assured residents that a lasting solution had been found.
"We had a problem but we have now solved it. The road will be completed soon," he said.
At that event, CS Wamalwa announced the allocation of Sh1.7 billion for the completion of the road in Tongaren, Bungoma North.
The project was initiated seven years ago by Mr Lusaka, the county’ first governor, but the first section was completed under his successor, Wycliffe Wangamati, at a cost of Sh600 million.
Mr Wangamati had promised to complete the project within his tenure but this was not the case. He lost the 2022 election to Mr Lusaka, to whom the blame has shifted.
