MPs question delays in finishing Sh3.7bn roads

The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) is in the spotlight due to four road projects worth Sh3.7 billion, which MPs say are behind schedule without any valid reasons.

They include the Thika bypass (Sh1.8 billion), Nyahururu bypass (Sh562 million), Old Malindi Road (Sh796 million) and Garissa Township roads (Sh519 million).

In a report by the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee, lawmakers expressed fear that delays in completing the projects could escalate their costs and the burden will fall on taxpayers.

“It was not clear why the management initiated projects before acquisition of land [where] the projects were to be implemented. Finally, it was not clear to the committee whether there was cost escalation arising from the projects,” the report says.

Several factors were blamed for the delays.

“These projects had taken inordinately long to complete for various reasons including delayed exchequer releases and change of scope. It was not clear to the committee whether extension of time had been sought and granted,” reads the report.

Lawmakers also urged Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu to review the projects and report on their costs and time of implementation in the 2022/2023 audit cycle. The report says the roads are at various stages of completion – Thika bypass (85 per cent), Nyahururu bypass (94 per cent), Old Malindi Road (96 per cent) and Garissa Township roads (60 per cent).

In the Thika bypass case, the report cites delayed disbursements and the realignment of the road at Del Monte, which required uprooting crops. The Nyahururu bypass was also affected by delayed disbursements, relocation of services and the Nyahururu Golf Club’s refusal to cede a road reserve, resulting in a court injunction that stalled the project for about one year.

For Old Malindi Road, the report cites delayed payments, the effects of Covid-19 and rains.

“The contractor indicated that if payment was done on time he would complete the works within the extended time,” the report says. The delay was caused by a lengthy vesting process from Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) to Kura, but the committee was told that the contractor had returned to the site.

Another delayed project, the committee was told, is the upgrading of Maua town roads, which should have been done within 24 months.

It was later revised to 48 months, up to May 19, 2019, but it was still incomplete. As of June 2020 the project was 70 per cent complete, 22 months after the completion date had lapsed.