County needs Sh29 billion to repair roads, committee says

A new pothole repair machine at work on Kenyatta Avenue. The machine procured from Europe is on pilot stage and is expected to reduce road maintenance cost by 50 per cent. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Nairobi county government requires Sh29 billion to repair city roads, according to a report tabled by a county assembly committee.

The city has a 3,600km road network but only 50 per cent is tarmacked. Twenty per cent are gravelled while the remaining 30 per cent are earth roads.

This was established in a report tabled by Transport Committee Chairman Mark Ndung'u, who was replying to a request of statement by Deputy Speaker John Kamangu on the tarmacking of roads in Nairobi.

“The total cost of tarmacking 20km of road is approximately Sh1 billion at the rate of 50 million per kilometre. At the moment the county does not have a budget to carry out the works,” read the report.

It further went on to blame the poor state of some roads on inadequate funding, noting that the available budget of Sh3.5 billion was only able to tarmac 10 per cent of the road network.

Nairobi has been grappling with bad roads dotted with sizeable potholes, with little effort having been put in place to address the same.

Pedestrians and motorists bear the brunt of the bad roads, especially when it rains with some being forced to use handcarts to slosh through floodwater.

Poor drainage

The existing poor drainage system does little to ease the situation. The most affected estates are Umoja, Kayole, Komarock, and Buru Buru, not forgetting some sections of the Central Business District.

Mr Kamangu, in his request for statement had said that the bad roads in his Ruai ward had hampered operations.

However, the county government last week announced plans to purchase two pothole patching machines to repair the bad roads.

The machines valued at Sh50 million each will fix potholes in just five minutes, making them more efficient and economical, compared to hiring a group of youths to do the job.

County Transport Executive Mohamed Dagane revealed that the new equipment would reduce the cost of road maintenance by 50 per cent.

Acting County Secretary Leboo Morintat explained that the project was to be undertaken sooner but delays in constituting the county government had slowed down the ambitious project.

“We are looking to ensure that we take care of the roads in estates, main highways as well as the central business district,” observed Leboo.

In the current 2017-2018 financial year, the transport sector was allocated the lion's share of the development fund which is Sh4.9 billion.

This is to go towards completion of infrastructure projects that have stalled since 2013.

A report released by the Budget and Appropriations Committee early last year showed 181 projects had stalled due to lack of funds. Nairobi's budget is Sh35 billion.