Nairobi County official blames departments over stalled projects

Nairobi residents on Monday took the county government to task, questioning stalled projects despite budgetary allocations.

The residents were particularly concerned about the poor state of roads in parts of the city even after the Transport department, in a report, showed that the county had used Sh2.7 billion since 2013 to repair and maintain roads, construct bridges, install street lights and improve drainage system.

According to the report, 1,300km of roads have been repaired, six bridges built, 2,000km of drains maintained and 25,000 new street lights installed.

It also shows that six new 10km roads have been completed. In the report, Mathare 4A Road in Ruaraka, the Kapiti estate access road in South B, Njiwa Road in Makongeni and Vanga Road in Kilimani are listed as being among those roads.

Public works director Frederick Karanja, addressing a public sector hearing at Charter Hall, blamed the finance, environment and the inspectorate departments for the misfortune facing his department.

Mr Karanja said the contractors had failed to complete most of the projects because the finance department refused to pay them.

"Most of the contractors doing business have terminated their contracts over non-payment. They can't stretch more while the county fails to honour their payment deal," he said.

He cited Manyanja Road, which stalled because the contractor could not be paid.

A member of the National County Social Congress, Suba Churchill, raised concerns about the use of pedestrian walkways by hawkers, car wash business, illegal structures and motorbikes, among others, saying it was unsafe for pedestrians using roads in the city.

Mr Karanja blamed the inspectorate department for the menace on the walkways, saying they should enforce the law and keep away those intruding on the sidewalks and using them for their businesses.

He added that the environment department was to blame for problems with drainage and sewerage systems, saying they do not collect garbage and deposit them in designated areas.

"Garbage removed from this drainage is left on the side and once the rains come, the dirt is swept back to the drainage system again, " Mr Karanja said.

Chief transport officer Michael Ngari said residents should take responsibility to protect pedestrian walks and not allow those misusing them to sell their wares on them.

He also blamed residents for not participating in identifying and planning of projects in their areas, challenging them to own those projects.

John Kinuthia, a resident of South C, said the county government has been concentrating on developed areas while ignoring the least developed ones.

However, Mr Karanja, in his defence, said the department did not have a mandate on sewerage and water as that is the domain of the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company.

Mr Ngari said the county had repaired over 31,000 streets lights and also installed 21,000 new ones since 2013.

This was disputed by a resident, Lillian Awuor of Mabatini in Mathare, saying that over 80 per cent of street lights are not working in the city.

She added that contractors have been repairing existing street lights in Mathare and getting paid for purportedly installing new lights.