Roads deteriorate as Government, counties squabble

A herds boy walks back home sheep and goats from grazing along the dilapidated Kainuk-Lodwar road in Turkana County. Rivalryhas left some roads impassable. [Kevin Tunoi, Standard]

Infighting between counties and national government over who is supposed to maintain certain roads has led to the deterioration of more roads in rural towns.

Although the road classification done in 2014 was meant to cure this, most counties are still uncertain over which roads they are supposed to maintain.

Instead, they are passing the blame to the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra), even after fighting to force the government to cede to them management of a huge chunk of the country’s road network.

The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) which is on its bi-annual inspection tour across counties in the South Rift and Nairobi expressed concern that the infighting is affecting the quality of roads which is maintained by the cash collected from the fuel levy. Motorists are charged Sh18 per litre of fuel which is collected by KRB and distributed between the national government and counties.

Apart from Nairobi, the three other counties inspected by KRB show roads with potholes, including one next to Bomet governor’s office.

“At the end of the day, wananchi do not care whether a road is maintained or built by Kura, Kerra or the county. What they want is a good road that is passable,” KRB Executive Director Jacob Ruwa told Kericho County leaders yesterday.

This was when the team paid the governor a courtesy call. “Maybe at some point we will have to re-classify the roads but we are all working for the people and we need to work together first,” he said.

At the heart of the conflict is maintenance of roads in urban centres within the counties.  Ideally this is supposed to be the role of Kura but most of the roads that were in its jurisdiction were taken up by counties.

Out of Kenya’s 161,45km road network, counties now control 122,000km. The Kenya National Highways Management Authority manages 17,472km, Kura manages 13,044km and the Kenya Wildlife Service (4,583km).

KRB collects Sh60 billion annually through the Road Maintenance Levy Fund, then distributes 15 per cent of this amount to the 47 counties.

Counties however insist it is the job of KURA to maintain the roads in the urban areas. “Kura insists that it has been awarded some contracts in rural areas. You cannot do one kilometre of a new road in the village and leave it there when the town is full of potholes, Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso told KRB. “We want to insist that all the money they have goes to Sotik and Bomet town,” she said.

KRB however insists it is the role of counties to maintain all the roads in their urban centres. “KURA is supposed to handle bypasses and major links while KeNHA handles national trunk roads,” said Ruwa.