Viral photo claiming KDF tarmacking road to Raila Odinga's home misleading

A viral photo claiming the Kenyan Military are tarmacking a road headed to Azimio la Umoja One coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga's home in Bondo is false.

The photo which has made rounds on social media for a couple of days claimed the move is a clear indication that Raila would be the next president.

The post implied that since the former PM would win, his Bondo home would experience a surge in the number of dignitaries thus prompting the KDF to tarmac the road.

"This is Kisian-Bondo road that leads to Odinga's home. KDF together with contractors are working tirelessly day and night to make it done in the next 10 days. The security situation in the area has also been tightened. Bondo is set to receive as many visitors as possible from next week for Baba Raila Odinga Presidency victory celebration," the post read.

But the Standard Checkpoint deployed its teams on the ground to verify the claim.

A spot-check by the writer as well as interviews with officials from the Kenya National Highway Authority prove otherwise.

According to officials, there is no new road being tarmacked to Bondo and the military is not involved in any way in what they describe as routine maintenance of the road.

Senior Kenha officials said that the 55km stretch was undergoing routine maintenance from Kisian to Bondo at a cost of Sh700 million. This includes re-carpeting and covering the potholes.

Ezekiel Fukwo, the engineer in charge of maintenance at KENHA dismissed claims that the road was being built by the military.

"It was advertised and planned for like any other project. It is just a coincidence. There are other ongoing maintenance all over the country in Nairobi, Busia, Ugunja and even at the border we have two contractors even at the border," said Fukwo.

Pride Constructor equipment on site for the repair of a section of Bondo -Kisian road on July 31, 2022. [Michael Mute, Standard]

An official from the authority said the contractor undertaking the project is called Pride Limited who won the maintenance tender.

Kenha says the main reason the road is being maintained is that it is prone to potholes and damages and has nothing to do with the forthcoming election.

"Government has procedures. You cannot just wake up and start building roads. We did the same on Thika to Kenol over the weekend, so it's normal maintenance across the country," said the Kenha official.

Verdict: The Standard Checkpoint rates this claim as MISLEADING. Kenha confirms the road is being re-carpeted to fil potholes with a contractor who won the tender. The said contractor is not in any way KDF.