The Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has blown the whistle indicting road agencies under his ministry for committing unbudgeted road projects during the era of retired president Uhuru Kenyatta.
In a shocking revelation, Murkomen cited Sh700billion budget hole required to complete ongoing road projects initiated during Kenyatta’s administration.
“As we speak we have roads that ought to be completed across the country and they require more than Sh700 billion to complete.” Murkomen decried.
Effectively, the confession put the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA) on the spotlight of committing projects without budgetary allocation.
Murkomen’s public confession comes against the backdrop of reports that both KenHA and KURA could have inflated 26 road projects by a tune of up to Sh20billion between 2007 to 2017.
The current Director Generals (DGs) Eng. Kung’u Ndung’u (KeNHA), Eng. Silas Kinoti (KURA) and Eng. Philemon Kandie (KERRA) were still serving during Kenyatta’s administration and have so far survived the parastatal purge by president William Ruto.
Murokomen noted that said projects, and which have since stalled, should have been completed five years ago.
He however assured President William Ruto’s administration would finish the affected road projects, reiterating that no contractor would leave the site before the completion.
He spoke while inspecting road projects in Chepalungu, Bomet county.
He noted that the government through the Ministry of Roads and the National Treasury has set aside some money to help contractors continue with their work without disruption as they try to get more funds to facilitate their completion.
“As a ministry, we are discussing with all contractors and we are channeling all resources towards ensuring they remain on site…I want to thank the road contractors, both local and foreign, for being patient. But we are now devising a programme to ensure they are back to work.” He added
Murkomen spoke as president Ruto indicated that no other project will commence before the completion of the ones that are unfinished.
“I want to assure Kenyans that we are going to revive all the road projects that had stalled. We will complete them before we initiate construction of other roads.” President noted.
In regards to Bomet road projects, Murkomen assured the residents that the contractor has undertaken to complete them in eight months’ time.
The CS was in the company of area MP Victor Koech, Bomet Central lawmaker Richard Kilel, Sotik MP Amb. Francis Sigei, Bomet East’s Richard Yegon, Konoin MP Brighton Yegon, Bomet County Woman Rep Linet Chepkorir, and Senator Hillary Sigei during the tour.
On the 26 road projects cited to have been inflated to a tune of Sh20billion, cost overruns have culminated into a build-up of pending bills, currently estimated at Sh145billion for the road projects alone.
This accounts a quarter of the government’s total pending bills by the end of June 2023.
Although the projected costs as per the official records of the initial designs at the Ministry of Roads and Transport were estimated at Sh682.67billion, by the time the projects were being completed, the total cost had ballooned to Sh703.19billion, an inflation of the budget by a staggering Sh21 billion.
Most of these projects were procured by the KeNHA headed by Ndung’u and charged with the responsibility of the management, development, rehabilitation, and maintenance of Class S, A and B roads.
On the other hand, KURA under Director General Kinoti whose Outer Ring featured in the list of contracts that had their budget exceed their initial estimated cost by Sh3.64billion.
Initially, Kura had put the estimated total cost of the road at Sh9.89billion.
However, by the end of June last year, the road’s budget had swelled to Sh13.53billion.
Besides increasing the cost of the projects, contractors have also been cited for omitting certain infrastructure without reducing the cost.
A probe by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu found that the Chinese contractor who built the Sh21.5 billion Nairobi Western Bypass omitted six interchanges and other critical infrastructure that were approved in the initial road design, denying taxpayers value for money.
