Laikipia residents barricade road to protest over impassable stretch

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Protesters barricaded the Nanyuki-Rumuruti road on Tuesday morning to protest against what the termed the government’s failure to fulfill its promises to upgrade the stretch to bitumen standards. 

The 80km stretch becomes impassable during the rainy season with some vehicles getting stuck for days and others opting to use the longer 151Km Naromuru-Nyahururu route. 

The protesters only vacated the road after intervention by armed police officers.

They said that that crucial road that links Nanyuki to the new Laikipia County headquarters at Rumuruti has been neglected. 

“President Ruto has made several pledges first as the Deputy President in 2018, then during the campaigns leading to the 2022 General Election and early this year during a visit to Nanyuki Town when he commissioned the Government’s Affordable Housing Project, but nothing has been done,” David Mwaura, a local, lamented.

Traders and public service vehicle operators have decried huge losses occasioned by delayed delivery of goods and costly vehicle maintenance and accused elected leaders of using pledges to rehabilitate the road as a campaign agenda since 2013. 

Patients and expectant women who are referred to Nanyuki Teaching and Referral Hospital bear the brunt with some losing their lives during the journey which at times takes five hours for a 25km distance. 


BY CITIZEN DIGITAL

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