Govt freezes new road projects over huge pending bills
Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen.
The government has put a freeze on new road projects until the ongoing ones worth Sh600 billion are fully implemented within the next three years.
The development comes as the country is grappling with Sh150 billion in pending bills for infrastructure projects already completed but yet to be paid for.
Appearing before the Senate, Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen said the government is working on clearing the pending bills and the committed amounts before any new road projects can be rolled out.
However, he pointed out that there could be a glimmer of hope in terms of new road projects should development partners agree to give Kenya concessional support to build the same.
The CS explained that the government is currently in a huge debt hole as a result of excessive borrowing by the previous regime resulting in the current restriction.
Mr Murkomen explained he has been in China for the last one week discussing the Sh600 billion commitment where most of the contractors are Chinese with a portfolio of Sh400 billion of the roads that are pending.
He said the Sh150 billion comprise work that has already been done, certificates issued and contractors are waiting to be paid.
“We have a very serious challenge of pending bills. My ministry is, however, doing everything possible to do away with these pending bills. In the last one week, I was in China to discuss with the Exim Bank and relevant ministries on how to help us shoulder these bills,” said the CS.
“But I will be a liar to say here that we will do new roads from zero although my ministry is doing everything humanly possible to do away with these pending bills and committed amounts,” he added.
He pointed out that some of the road projects have been pending for many years because some were done without following procurement rules.
The CS cited Chakarika-Marimati road project in Tharaka Nithi County which he said has been pending since 2015, adding that the project is just one example of many projects where no budget was allocated before tendering was done as is required under procurement laws.
“We were recently relaunching a road in Nyandarua launched in 2016/17 because it was launched and then left and no money was allocated for its implementation,” he said.
Further, he said the current situation came about as a result of funds, in cases where the law was followed, being diverted to other issues in the last two or three years of the Jubilee government.
“Perhaps there was a budget but this was diverted to other things and I don’t want to be political here but a lot of it was diverted in the last three or two years to do things that were not core mandates of the government as per its own budget,” he said.
He, however, called for patience assuring the country that all the pending road projects will be complete in three years’ time.
“I want to ask for patience. You tell your constituents, there is no point planting bananas on those roads as we will solve the problem of pending roads,” said CS Murkomen.
“We are going to make sure all pending roads are completed and we will not start new roads before then,” he added.
CS Murkomen was appearing before the Senate as part of five CSs who were set to answer questions raised by senators. He was joined by Tourism, Wildlife and Heritage CS Penina Malonza, and Zacharia Njeru of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development.
However, Education CS Ezekiel Machogu and Kithure Kindiki of Interior did not appear before the senators.
