Baringo to use Sh80m in roads upgrade project

Baringo County has embarked on a Sh80 million project to improve over 600 kilometres of roads in its six sub-counties. 

The programme dubbed Imarisha Barabara is an initiative under the rapid response initiative which aims at improving existing roads to spur development and tourism.

The project aims at gravelling, grading and maintaining the roads and targets to enhance 20 kilometres in each of the 30 wards in the region in the next 100 days.

While commissioning the project in Kabarnet Town on Wednesday, Governor Stanley Kiptis expressed concern that some roads in the remote parts of the county have not been graded since independence.

“We are using equipment from the county and we have also hired six excavators, 12 graders and 24 tippers. This will see youths in the region get employment as we are targeting to hire 60 of them to supplement the existing personnel. We want to see that all our roads in the remote parts which are yet to be improved since we attained independence are upgraded,” said Mr Kiptis.

He said the initiative will go a long way in boosting security through the opening up of roads in the volatile areas of the region.

“Armed bandits in the porous regions in this county have been staging attacks and killing people because they know that those remote areas cannot be accessed by security officers. By opening up [the areas], normalcy will be restored,” said Mr Kiptis.

The governor also said he will focus on instant impact of improved road network to spur economic development and link markets to producers.

“When constructing these roads, we are considering agricultural productivity, linkage of productive areas to the market and regional balancing,” said the governor.

Baringo County Executive Committee Member for Roads Philemon Rono said the initiative is a simultaneous operation that categorises wards into five clusters of six wards. Once work on one cluster is complete, they will proceed to the other wards.

He said his office is working with other stakeholders to manage the projects and ensure that standard roads are constructed.

Mr Rono said the poor state of roads has hampered movement of agricultural products for a long time and once the roads are  improved, they will ease access to urban markets and attract more investors.