• While appreciating their concerns, the local contractors must style up. This is the reason why the recently established National Construction Authority has come up with strict rules to create standards and guarantee effective delivery.

The past 10 years saw massive investment in infrastructure that went a long way towards spurring economic growth. In a departure from the past, the government tightened procurement procedures and locked out cowboy contractors, who had made a killing by charging exorbitant fees for shoddy, or zero, work.

That way, doors were opened for foreign contractors, especially Chinese companies, which have done a great job. Thika Road stands out as a testimony to good construction work.

This influx of foreigners, however, has not gone down well with the locals, who argue that they are losing out business because they cannot compete effectively against better equipped multinationals.

While appreciating their concerns, the local contractors must style up. This is the reason why the recently established National Construction Authority has come up with strict rules to create standards and guarantee effective delivery.

In the first place, all the contractors have been given a one-month notice to register.

This is aimed at weeding out the briefcase contractors, who are good at negotiating deals but, hardly ever deliver.

Also, the contractors have to live to up to high standards so that they can compete with the multinationals. Part of the reason for the poor performance of the locals was political patronage and deal-cutting with senior government officials.

Thus far, the Construction Authority says it is working with the Public Procurement Oversight Authority to revise the tendering process, including shortening it and limiting the number of contracts a firm can hold at any given time.

Given that many roads are in a poor shape due to the rains, there is an urgent need to carry out major repairs, complete projects, and roll out new ones.

• Now the National Aids Control Council is on a charm offensive, trying to persuade prominent personalities living with the virus to come out in the open and admit it, with the aim of assuring Kenyans that Aids ceased to be a death sentence many years ago.

If we lived in a perfect world, disclosing our HIV status would come naturally.

Indeed, in this day and age, it is ridiculous for people, some of them prominent and wealthy, to live in denial because of the stigma associated with the Aids virus, thereby endangering the lives of their spouses and other associates.

Now the National Aids Control Council is on a charm offensive, trying to persuade prominent personalities living with the virus to come out in the open and admit it, with the aim of assuring Kenyans that Aids ceased to be a death sentence many years ago.

This, of cause, is a tall order. Such people would rather use antiretroviral drugs in secret and pretend that everything is all right.

Unfortunately, they are the same ones who would refuse to use any protection, thus infecting others.

Such outcomes are to be highly regretted. It takes an exceptionally brave person to admit living with HIV, and though there may be other causes besides sexual promiscuity, their fears are real.

Too many Kenyans are still dying, most through preventable ignorance. Losing 49,126 Kenyans from opportunistic diseases in one year should not be countenanced.