Mandera County government starts upgrading access roads

The Mandera County government has started upgrading access roads in a project aimed at stimulating the economic growth.

More than 500 kilometres of road have already been upgraded using murram, with another 24.5 kilometres of tarmac road undergoing construction.

Once complete, this will be the first tarmac road in the county.

According to the county infrastructure department, forty access roads have also been opened up in areas that were previously impassable.

The poor road network has been partly blamed for the slow economic growth in the region, especially in areas where agriculture and livestock keeping is practiced.

Mandera Town residents expressed optimism that as devolution takes root, they will see more development projects being initiated.

Mr Abdi Maalim, a trader in the town, said most of the business people are forced to spend long hours on the dilapidated roads when transporting their goods.

VEHICLES BREAK DOWN

“We take up to days to transport goods from Nairobi to Mandera. Our vehicles often break down, making us to incur huge losses.

"We are, however, optimistic that with the ongoing infrastructural projects, the economic impact of Mandera will be felt,” said Mr Maalim.

However, leaders from the county have complained that they are getting a raw deal from the national government in its plan to construct 2,000 kilometres of roads by 2016.

Last week, Wajir South MP Abdullahi Diriye, who said he was speaking for other leaders such Wajir Senator Abdirahman Ali Hassan, Wajir West MP Abdullahi Ore and his Mandera North counterpart Adam Mohamed Noor, told Nation.co.ke that the distribution of roads “marginalises” their areas though they have the least tarmacked roads.

“The government should use roads to bring marginalised regions at par with the rest of the country.

“Mandera and Wajir have never had tarmac roads since independence and we would have expected better consideration,” he said