Overloaded trucks cost Kenya billions of shillings

By ANTONY GITONGA

The country is losing billions of shillings annually due to road damage caused by overloaded trucks.

Kenya Roads Board says destruction of the Northern corridor cost the taxpayer Sh700 million in 2009.

The Mombasa-Nairobi section is the worst hit by overloading.

The Board Executive Director Engineer Francis Nyangaga termed the practise a serious problem in the country.

"We have introduced the parallel monitoring units across the country to check it," he said.

He said they had recommended stern measures against cargo owners and stiffer penalties to curb the vice.

Nyangaga was speaking in Naivasha when he led members of the board in a check on transporters ferrying cargo along the Mai Mahiu-Naivasha road. He said the move to privatise weigh-bridges across the country was meant to reduce civil servants on the stations and enhance service delivery.

increase lifespan

"We are ready to fight previous weaknesses by working with Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and other Government agencies so that the lifespan of our roads is increased," he said

Nyangaga said plans were underway to introduce more static weighbridges across the country’s roads.

"We do the monitoring quarterly and we have come to learn that the Mombasa-Nairobi section is notorious for overloading," said Mr Christopher Abuodha, a consultant commissioned by KRB to monitor axle load.

He said studies had shown that some of the transporters were overloading by 20 tonnes.

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