The overdue construction of the Kasarani-Mwiki road in Kasasrani constituency, Nairobi, Kenya, has finally begun after months of unfulfilled promises.
The Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) announced on its twitter handle that it has already awarded the tender for the execution of the project and that the contractor has already deployed machinery and labor on-site and began working on the sorry state road.
The scope of the work according to Kura, includes the improvement of the approximately 3km Kasarani-Mwiki Road and the Sunnyside Court Estate Road which is approximately 0.6km long to bitumen standard.
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The work on the Kasarani-Mwiki road in Kenya will also include the construction of drainage structures on selected sections, construction of 7.0m carriageways with 1.0m wide shoulders, construction of open drains on either side of the road, putting up road furniture, utility relocation, safety provisions, and protection works.
As part of the contract, the contractor is also expected to maintain the road for a period of 12 months.
Protests by area residents over the poor state of the road
The Kasarani-Mwiki road’s condition has been the cause of many protests since the days of the city council administration to the devolved government administration. The road has been repaired twice during the reign of Dr. Evans Kidero as the Nairobi county government boss and that of Governor Mike Sonko. However, the repairs didn’t seem to satisfy the area residents.
In January this year, the transport was paralyzed in Kasarani and Mwiki regions for four days as matatu operators protested over the poor state of the road. This led to a lengthy engagement between Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority acting Managing Director Silas Kinoti, and the release of approximately US$ 3M of the over US$ 15M set aside for city road repairs by the national government to facilitate the reconstruction of the road.
