Kenya’s infrastructure has been one of the hottest issues during the ongoing political campaigns with the government citing ‘massive’ road network expansion as one of the key achievements in the past four and half years.
“From independence to the year 2013, we have had 12,000 kilometers (km) of road in 50 years,” explained Deputy President William Ruto during an interview with a local radio station recently.
“In just four and a half years we are doing 7,000km, almost 80 per cent of what we did since independence.”
The government’s claim is however inaccurate going by data from the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The 2017 edition of the annual Public Roads Programme published by KRB indicates that the length of Kenya’s entire road network stands at 161,451 kilometers.
Of this, a total of 39,995.1kms is classified under type A, B, and C constituting the national roads network while another 121,456km fall under class D-G comprising of smaller road networks that are classified under the county road network.
KRB however notes that this classification does not include recent changes to the road network and omits newly constructed and upgraded roads
The last comprehensive road inventory and condition survey was carried out in 2009 and currently another survey is underway with the ministry set to publish the results in November this year.
KNBS however contains annual data of additional road projects over the last five years and gives a more accurate picture.
As at 2012, the year before the Jubilee administration took office, KNBS puts the total number of kilometres under Bitumen at 9,612km.
KNBS notes that as at last year, this number had grown to 14,500km implying an additional 4,888 kilometers of bitumen roads constructed in the past four and a half years.
KNBS states that another 1,416km of road construction projects from under the Roads 2000 programme launched in 2007 are yet to be completed.
The Deputy President’s claim that the Jubilee administration has added 7,000km of roads is thus overstated.
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