Relief for Kitengela residents as Kenha begins Sh67 million road project
New Kitengela service lane under construction. The new road is expected to ease traffic congestion in the populous town.
Residents of Kitengela town will soon benefit from a new service road being built parallel to the Namanga Highway.
The Sh67 million, two-kilometre project by the Kenya National Highway Authority (Kenha) is expected to ease traffic congestion.
The new road will extend the existing service lane from the Milimani Tosha filling station, past the Quick Mart supermarket and through the hilly Kenya Kids area.
On August 8, 2023, the contractor had already started building a bridge in the Riverside area.
"The road will be completed in the next six months. Those who will be affected by the project have already been informed," a construction supervisor told the Nation. Africa.
The new service lane will come as a great relief to motorists and other road users in the densely populated town, where traffic jams are common in the evenings.
At the weekends, police officers from Kitengela Police Station are forced to control traffic until late at night.
Motorists are optimistic that the new service lane will ease congestion and encourage further growth in the town.
"The stretch from the Quick Mart supermarket to the EPZ junction is sometimes chaotic, especially in the evenings and at weekends," said Mr John Kamau, a resident of Chuna Estate who works in Nairobi.
Tuk-tuk taxi operators said the service lane will reduce road accidents, especially in the hilly part of the town. They claim that speeding motorists often push them off the road, sometimes causing accidents.
"We will no longer use the highway. We will pick up and drop off our customers along the service lane. This will ease traffic congestion and reduce road accidents," said Mr Peter Mutiso, a tuk-tuk operator.
However, the construction of the service lane will affect most businesses, especially those that have encroached on the road reserve.
Kenya Power will also be forced to move its power lines.
Kajiado East MP Kakuta Mai Mai said several other roads in the town would be tarmacked. The Kenya Urban Roads Authority will tarmac 1.5 kilometres of the old Namanga road, 1.5 kilometres and the same stretch of the Ola-Acacia Road.
"We have also asked KeNHA to construct three footbridges: one at the roadblock to EPZA, another in the town centre near Rubis Filling Station and another in the Enkare area to decongest Kitengela town," says Mai Mai.
Five years ago, the national government introduced a commuter train that picks up commuters from New Valley Estate on the Standard Gauge Railway line to ease traffic in the town, but without much success. Commuters are usually charged Sh100 to travel to Nairobi.
