It will take 10 years, Sh650bn to finish ongoing road projects

It will take 10 years and Sh650 billion to complete ongoing road projects across the country, according to the latest Budget Policy Statement (BPS).

The 2020/21 BPS was presented to the National Assembly Transport Committee by Infrastructure principal secretary Paul Maringa.

According to the statement, if the government takes this route, it will not launch new road projects. Instead, it will concentrate on the ongoing ones.

Mr Maringa told the committee that delays in clearing bills mean more pain for suppliers and contractors, late payments to the Kenya Revenue Authority and in payment of wages.

PENDING BILLS

The PS added that accumulation of pending bills, extending time on projects and variations in contract amounts have an overall negative impact on the country’s economy.

The projects will also be affected by budget cuts to the department – from Sh65 billion requested for the 2020/21 financial year to the Sh51 billion allocated, a drop of Sh14 billion.

The PS told the lawmakers that the reduction of the budget would affect the settling of pending bills and result in stagnation of projects.

“Projects have slowed down across the country. We released Sh15 billion, from which we hope to pay the pending bills,” Prof Maringa said.
As at December last year, the department had Sh90 billion in outstanding bills.

Out of this amount, some Sh30 billion was used to compensate Kenyans who surrendered land for the road projects.

SH60 BILLION
The remaining Sh60 billion is for ongoing works. Prof Maringa, however, added that he had engaged contractors to continue working as the government waits for the Sh800 billion bond to mature in June.

The PS added that the first amount – some Sh150 billion – would be used to settle some of the pending bills.

Last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the 2019 Kenya Roads Board (Amendment) Bill that paves the way for a Sh800 billion infrastructure bond in four years.

The Act seeks to ensure that roads for which tenders have been awarded and money allocated are completed within the set timelines.

It is expected to restructure the mandate and operations of the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) and agencies like the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Rural Roads Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura).

290 CONSTITUENCIES

The law says at least 22 per cent of funds should be deposited in the Constituency Roads Fund Account. The country has 290 constituencies.
Another 10 per cent of the funds should be appropriated by the National Assembly for the development and maintenance of roads linking constituencies.

The law caps 40 per cent to be allocate to national roads. This money should be administered by KeNHA.

Fifteen per cent of the funds will be set aside for construction and maintenance of urban roads by Kura while a paltry one per cent will go to the national parks. The last batch is to be administered by the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Kenyans in many parts of the country have complained about bad roads.

In January, residents of Kasarani, Nairobi, held a demonstration over the poor state of Mwiki Road.

The protests turned tragic when a 17-year-old boy identified as Stephen Machurusi was killed.

A man was shot and seriously wounded when police officers dispersed the protesters.
Last year, residents of Kiserian and Ongata Rongai also took to the streets over poor state of roads, saying staying in those areas had become a nightmare especially for those working in downtown Nairobi and have to commute every morning to work.

LIST OF SHAME

The government last year released a ‘list of shame’ consisting of road contractors who had been labelled as non-performing and delaying various government projects worth billions of shillings across the country.

The list of 14 contractors, who had been given road contracts but had not delivered at the expected time, was handed to the National Assembly’s Transport, Public works and Housing Committee.

Chairman David Pkosing (Pokot South) said the non-performing contractors had delayed the ambitious government plan of achieving its target of constructing 10,000km of roads and they should therefore be barred from bagging other tenders.

He said the committee was contemplating moving an amendment to the Procurement and Disposal Act to bar such companies or others with similar or same directors from getting any other works.