State to hand over road construction to contractors

Contractors will now be required to design, construct and maintain roads as the government adopts a new mode of infrastructure development.

This decision was reached after a meeting involving Deputy President William Ruto, Transport Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau and his Treasury counterpart Henry Rotich, Transport Principal Secretary John Musonik and Kenya National Highways Authority Director General Meshack Kidenda.

Speaking after the meeting, the two CSs said the government would pay contractors at regular intervals over an eight-year period.

"There is a difference between what we propose to do and what used to happen previously. Contractors will have their consultants to design the roads so that the issue of escalation of costs does not arise when we provide the designs," Kamau said.

He argued that contractors complained of wrong designs which led to high costs in the past.

"Now the responsibility will be with them because they will have to repair the roads for a period of six years," he said.

He added that the State will also work with governors to ensure roads constructed are of high quality.

"We are trying to bring in a new mode of financing where the private sector will play a big role. This mode has been used in Australia and the United Kingdom," noted Rotich.

They said the new move would start with the construction of 10,000 kilometres over the next five years and that an expression of interest for those willing to construct the 2,000 kilometres in 2014/2015 had already been released.

The meeting precedes a conference for players in the road construction industry to be held today in Nairobi. President Uhuru Kenyatta will open the forum. Engineers and consultants are among those set to attend.