Uhuru Kenyatta leaves William Ruto saddled with Sh500b in pending bills

Macharia said the Transport docket has outstanding bills worth at least Sh140 billion. "We have already briefed the president-elect who has agreed to give them first priority when he ascends to power."

He said the pending payments in his ministry were mainly from the ongoing road maintenance works across the country by the KRB, adding that they would endeavour to clear them in 6-12 months.

"The KRB has a turnover of Sh100 billion annually mainly collected from fuel levy. Following the amendment of the KRB Act, the board will be allocating 50 per cent instead of the previous 10 per cent of the money collected from the fuel levy to development. The remaining Sh50 billion should be used to pay pending bills every financial year.

"The Jubilee Government has tarmacked 11,200 kilometres of roads for the last 10 years. This has seen an increase of vehicles on our roads from 3.2 million three years ago to 4.8 million, and the ripple effect is the increase in fuel levy collection. The money collected is what is being used to maintain the tarmacked roads," said Macharia.

On Ms Wakiaga's appointment, Macharia said that the "baton of leadership has been given to an achiever" and that both Uhuru and Ruto had confidence she would deliver.

"The outgoing chairperson, Rita Kavashe, has done a tremendous job during her tenure and we are confident that Ms Wakiaga will double her work. This shows strong leadership from ladies going by what they have achieved previously," he said.

Ms Wakiaga said she was up to the task in her new role. "I have worked as the CEO of Kenya Association of Manufacturers for nine years, government and industry affairs coordinator and manager at Kenya Airways for seven years, and as an advocate of the High Court for 16 years. I commit myself to ensuring that we achieve the Vision 2030 goal of having a world class infrastructure that is an enabler of making Kenya a middle-class economy."

She added: "For us to fast-track economic growth by benefiting from the Africa Free Trade Area, development of proper infrastructure must be a key enabler. We will also develop capacity of local manufacturers and construction companies so that they will favourably compete from the Africa Free Trade Area, which will in turn create many jobs opportunities for Kenyans."

Ms Wakiaga promised that all the pending bills "will be completed before any other commitments and maintenance works can be made in the transport sector."