Row erupts over delay to classify roads

By LUKE ANAMI

Kenya: Controversy has hit the classification of roads following a decision to group all roads as either national or county.

It is not yet clear, which roads will remain under the national government and those that will be retained at the county level.

This follows a constitutional requirement that only calls for two kinds of roads as opposed to the former classification structure where roads have been classified as A, B, C, D, or D among other structures.

Further, the move will also determine the funding of both roads and what criteria will be used by the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) to fund their construction as well as maintenance.

Up in arms 

“A new classification that will only see roads either as national or county is in progress. The Constitution provides for a national and county road but does not determine which roads are for the two governments,” Engineer Jacob Ruwa, acting CEO KRB.

Eng Ruwa, who is also the General Manager Planning & Programming at KRB, however, assured the governors that the move to classify will not be delayed.

“We are in discussion with all stakeholders in the road sector and there should be no alarm.”

A number of governors have been up in arms against what they termed as reluctance by the national Government to hand over roads function to the counties as stipulated by the Constitution.

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya had raised concern over the delay in finalising the classification saying it will delay road projects in the counties.

“When the national government declined to release roads to us as per the Constitution, they delayed our plans to fix most of them because of lack of funding. We hope they will conclude the classification process as soon as possible,” Oparanya said.

However, in a meeting between the governors, Transitional Authority and the national government, there is progress to classify, a move that will determine the funding of the roads.

Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago chairs the Infrastructure Governors Committee over the same.

 “Currently, a technical team that comprises of Governors’  Council, national government and Transitional Authority is discussing a proposed structure that only needs national and county roads,” Engineer Joel Wanyoike, Chairman KRB Board said while on an inspection tour of the C30 Ejinja-Bumala-Busia Road in Buisa County.

Special Purpose 

“The actual division of which roads will eventually be national or county is not yet out.”

Eng Wanyoike said the classification will determine the funding of roads construction and maintenance by the KRB.

“Funds from KRB will depend on workloads, maintenance, physical structure and nature of the road among other factors.”

Kenya has about 178,000km of roads of which 63,290km are classified while the rest 98,950km are not. Most of the classified roads are still under the national Government leaving a chunk of the roads to the counties. The current classification has six road classes named from classes A to E and a Special Purpose Road class. Each class is defined by the functional criteria related to administrative level of centres the roads connect.