Construction of River Enziu killer bridge only 10pc done

Residents of Mwingi in Kitui County are staring at another drowning disaster after the River Enziu, where 32 people perished last year, flooded, posing a grave risk to travellers.

A collapsed ground bridge that caused a school bus ferrying a wedding party on December 3 to plunge into the river is worse than it was last year, while an overhead bridge project supposed to ease travel has stalled.

With the onset of the November-December short rains, owners of matatus plying the Mwingi-Nguni-Nuu route have withdrawn their vehicles, fearing the dangers of crossing the killer bridge.

Onesmus Nzioka, an official of the Kinatwa Sacco, told the Nation that they had withdrawn their vehicles from that route to avoid putting their passengers at risk and would only return once the rainy season was over.

“There is no point in endangering lives. What happened last year was a disaster. No one wants to see it recur and we have no choice but to suspend our operations along that route,” Mr Nzioka said.

He advised travellers booking trips from Nairobi, Mombasa and Kitui to Nuu that the last destination is Nguni market and that people should find their own means for the rest of their journey.

On that route, Kinatwa had deployed about ten 14-seater matatus per day, coming from different towns. Their withdrawal will greatly affect travellers, especially students heading home after schools close next week for the December holidays and people going home for Christmas.

Another matatu company, called Headmaster, with a fleet of four 25-seater buses, also suspended services on the route, further worsening the transport crisis.

Could not risk lives

Maina Ngugi, the proprietor of Headmaster, said they could not risk lives and that his fleet will resume operations once the bridge is fixed or after the rainy season.

“We are tired of forcing our passengers to spend agonising cold nights on the river banks whenever we find the Enziu crossing flooded, so to avoid all this, we have withdrawn from the route,” said Mr Ngugi.

Last year, a 51-seater bus ferrying a Catholic church choir from Mwingi to Nuu plunged into the Enziu River at the notorious bridge, killing 32 people, while 19 survivors were rescued alive and rushed to Mwingi hospital.

Among the passengers in the ill-fated bus were members of the bridal party, who perished in the tragedy, including a woman and her entire household of three children and two grandchildren.

Government delegation

After the tragedy, a government delegation, led by Infrastructure Principal Secretary Paul Maringa, visited the Enziu bridge on December 7 and promised that an overhead bridge will be built for Sh500 million.

A week later, Prof Maringa told MPs that his ministry had secured funds to build the bridge, whose work was expected to start in January this year, but almost a year later, the contractor has done only a paltry 10 percent of the work.

In 2019, the same PS had visited the bridge after five people travelling in a Toyota Probox drowned. He promised that a bridge would be built in one year, but nothing was done.

The Nation established on Friday that only one pillar has been built since January, with the contractor, Q Construction, saying the ministry is to blame for the slow pace of the project.

Kariuki Theuri, the contractor, said there were variations in the design of the bridge that altered the overall contract, including additional costs that had to be approved by ministry headquarters, which caused delays as the adjustments were corrected.

New contract

The new contract amount is Sh570 million.

But supervising engineer Mbavu Sayo said the contractor was behind schedule even though the contract period was 24 months and that he had been paid what was due to him as per the contract.

“The contractor was supposed to have built the supporting columns in the middle of the river before October because such works can’t be done during the rainy season, but now we have directed them to concentrate on the banks,’’ Mr Sayo said.

Mr Sayo, the regional manager for Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra), said the overhead Enziu bridge will be delivered within the period stipulated in the contract.

Whenever it rains, travelling from Mwingi to Nuu, a journey of 75km, is always a nightmare for locals and reaching their destinations safely is never guaranteed.

More than 30 primary and secondary schools in Mwingi Central constituency face possible disruptions in the national examinations because education officials must use the surface bridge.

Hardly a year passes without people drowning in the seasonal river that flows from the Mumoni Hills and cuts through Mwingi North and Mwingi Central constituencies before joining the River Tana.

Three years ago, four bodies of drowning victims were recovered at the same spot after three weeks of a frantic search by rescue teams from the Kitui County government, Kenya Red Cross, National Youth Service and Disaster Management Unit.