State to reassign stalled roadwork in Kisii

A senior administrator has warned that the Government will reassign contracts for all stalled road projects.

Nyanza Regional Commissioner James Kianda said this on Friday when he led the regional development coordination committee on a visit to the stalled Keboko to Nyacheki Road and the Omoringamu to Nyakoiba Road.

Speaking at Kenyenya town, Kianda said the two roads, which stretched over 100 kilometres, were allocated Sh1.4 billion, out of which Sh400 million had been spent but only 1.5 per cent of the work done so far.

“The Government will not sit and watch as the two projects, which are intended to change the lives of Kenyans for the better, remain incomplete three years since they were started. We are going to ensure that only serious contractors are allowed to manage projects,” said Kianda.

He admitted that corruption was prevalent in awarding of tenders, noting that it was one of the reasons unqualified contractors ended up being put in charge of multi-million-shilling projects that they failed to complete.

Kianda said that cancelling the contracts of companies that regularly failed to complete projects and subsequent blacklisting would hopefully serve as a lesson to other contractors.

Presidential Delivery Unit Director Truphosa Awuor said the contractor working on the two projects had faced challenges completing other works in Machakos and Nandi counties, hence forcing the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) to terminate his contracts.

Ms Awuor said the contractor had sued Kura claiming his contract had been terminated unprocedurally. The court, however, had asked the two parties to solve the matter out of court but an agreement was yet to be reached.

“We are calling for a speedy conclusion of the discussions between Kura and the contractor so that we can have the roads construction resume as soon as possible.”