Puzzle of stalled multi-billion shilling Mwai Kibaki projects in Nyeri

The Karatina market in Nyeri County whose construction has stalled due to lack of funds.[PHOTO: KIBATA KIHU/STANDARD]

During the last five years of Mwai Kibaki’s tenure as president, Nyeri County where his his ancestral home is domiciled, benefited immensely from government-commissioned projects.

Most of these projects were sanctioned under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) designed to boost economic growth and help the country's economy ride out of a recession that had been  triggered by the violence that followed the 2007 presidential election.

Uhuru Kenyatta, who was then the Finance minister, presided over the allocation of  Sh22 billion to the programme in the 2009-10 budget. These funds were earmarked for the construction of schools, markets, jua kali sheds and public health facilities in all Kenya’s 210 constituencies at the time.

But most of these projects have since stalled, abandoned midway mostly because funds ran out.

Yet it is two key projects that were not part of the ESP that continue to puzzle Nyeri residents six years after they were commissioned by Kibaki.

Karatina market and Othaya Level Five Hospital have gobbled up hundreds of millions of shillings and are still mere shells of what they were envisioned to be.

Independent sources indicate that Karatina market and Othaya hospital have so far guzzled  up to  Sh900 million but require more funds to complete.

Kibaki commissioned the construction of the Sh260 million Karatina open air market in 2010,  with the pledge that it would be completed by July 2013 a few months after he had left office.

Karatina was by no means an ordinary market. It entailed a four-storey building with 7,500 square metres of  floor space that could accommodate 3,000 traders, and 40 vehicles in its  basement parking.  It was envisaged that it would have  a 250-square metre cold storage room which farmers could hire to preserve their fresh produce.  

The initial contract had been awarded to Uchumi Contractors International Agencies Ltd, which assured the government that the market would be ready for use by July 2013. Three years after its due date, leaders from the county are still asking the government for additional funds to complete work on the market.

Nyeri Woman Representative Priscillah Nyokabi  says county leaders asked Deputy President William Ruto to intervene and help bridge the cash shortfall. Shortly after last September, the government floated a tender for the completion of the market.

“A sum of Sh170 million was allocated  and the tendering process began. However, it was not long before the procurement process was delayed by a bureaucratic muddle.  We hoped that a contractor would be on site by now,” said Nyokabi.

The MP says the market is 80 per cent complete. “We wish it can be completed within the shortest time possible,” she said.

In January, Nyeri Senator Mutahi Kagwe told a congregation at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Karatina that the government was in the process of identifying a suitable contractor to complete construction of the market.

Dilapidated facilities

This is not the only market whose construction has been held back.  During last year’s Jamhuri Day celebrations at Dedan Kimathi Kamukunji grounds, Governor Nderitu Gachagua said his administration would take over the construction of the  nearly completed ESP-funded markets at Narumoru, Nyeri town, Kamakwa, Kiaruhiu, Othaya, Mweiga and Kiandu.

New buildings at the Othaya Level 5 Hospital whose construction has stalled. The hospital, whose expansion began in 2010, should have been completed in 2013 but funds ran out. [PHOTO BY JOB WERU/STANDARD]

Today, disappointed vendors are still selling their wares, mostly fresh food produce, in unhygienic open air streets.

Mweiga market was among tens of other markets put up in various constituencies.  Construction of the market was to be completed in 2013 and balloting for the stalls finalised on April 2014, but the traders are still operating from  a nearby ground.

The market has about 100 trading slots, an offloading bay and an open air block. It is also well supplied with clean water.

Last year, some traders who had been allocated slots said their places had been arbitrarily given to others but corrupt county government officials.

However, Nyeri County Trade Chief Officer Walter Macharia said this is unlikely as the project had not been handed over to the county  by the contractor and the national government.

“This is problem is not unique to Nyeri. There are about 500 markets across the country that were constructed under ESP and are yet to be handed over to the county governments,” said Macharia.

In terms of the scope of work and the government resources pumped in, these markets   do not even compare to the Othaya Level Five Hospital. 

Construction of the mega facility has stalled even after the national government injected an additional Sh172 million, raising the amount spent so far to Sh672 million.

Patients continue to receive treatment at the old building  of Othaya Level Five Hospital put up several  decades ago as they await the modern hospital to be complete.

The delay in the construction has been partially explained. Peter Gachege, the project’s former chief administrative officer, says the hospital’s original design had defects, and this is probably why the amount quoted for its expansion was much lower than the cost of refurbishing it.

The project cost has also risen due to the increased cost of materials, Gachege noted.

“All the equipment is on site. We have even procured beds and bedding so that the hospital can become operational as soon as we are done with the works,” said Gachege, who left the Ministry of Health last year.

Cancelled tenders

Some equipment is being stored at the Othaya Constituency Development Fund offices and the Kenya Medical Supplies store in Nyeri town.

When   The Standard on Sunday visited the site, there was no work going on even though a new contractor, Lunao Construction Company,  had moved into the site last May.

The project stalled after the government cancelled an earlier tender awarded to a Nairobi firm. Former Health Cabinet Secretary James Macharia (now in the Transport docket) said the contract was terminated after queries emerged over the pricing of materials — it emerged that the price of some of the material was under quoted.

Since then, there has been no work going on at the hospital.

A source at the Ministry of Health  said the National Treasury had not released the funds.

“We wrote to the Treasury requesting they release the money, and it is yet to respond. We can only authoritatively comment on the project once we get clearance from the PS in the ministry,” the source said.

Speaking at Othaya Catholic Hall last week, area MP Mary Wambui said   the hospital would be completed by the end of the year.