How Falklands War cut crucial funds for killer Nithi bridge

Ernest William Twell, who was one of the top engineers for Kier International, which built the Thuci-Nkubu section of the Embu-Meru highway financed by a British grant, recalled in an interview how the sudden war between the two countries had thrust the project into uncharted territory.

Since the project had been a grant, Britain was influencing everything from tendering to how much was being pumped into the project.

One day, according to Twell, all senior officials in grant projects were called and shown a letter requiring them to downscale budgets due to the impending war.

Thuci-Nkubu road project, which Queen Elizabeth II had bequeathed to residents of a hinterland, which produced her "favourite coffee and tea," had to be cut back by several kilometres.

With its vertiginous bends, twists, turns, rises and descents, this road was an engineering marvel and one of the first in Kenya to have spacious climbing lanes.

The queen herself would have opened the highway during her last visit to Kenya in 1983, but instead sent her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, who cut a ribbon at a monument near Thuci river just after Kathangeri market, the last stop in Embu heading to Meru.

"Originally, the road was to pass through old Mitheru market, looping on a gentle ascent to Marima and Chogoria town, then meander along the tea farms through Igoji and Kanyakine markets, and connect to the existing highway at Nkubu township," Twell, who died in 2012, recalled in an interview two years to his death.

Rescuers at Nithi bridge after the Tawfiq accident in 2000. [File, Standard]

It was after this accident that the government launched a reconstruction of the descent from Marima, which has a climbing lane starting about 20m from the bridge.

The redesign involved construction of a central embankment separating vehicles climbing down from Meru to Nairobi, and those on the climb up towards Meru.

The effect is that vehicles on the descent from Marima have to endure without overtaking until they get to the bridge. This is what has reduced accidents - at least the intensity, but the frequency is still alarming.

According to data from Kenya Red Cross Society, 43 people had lost their lives at the black spot between June 2020 to May 2021, with up to 71 other casualties. It is only that these were minor accidents.

Former Kenya Red Cross Mt Kenya Region manager and CEO Mr Careplus Gitonga Mugambi said in a May 2021 interview that most of the accidents there were due to speeding and carelessness by drivers.

Some engineers have suggested complete removal of the bridge and construction of massive box culverts to reduce the gradient of the road across the river.