Senators have asked President William Ruto to withdraw the mandate that national government agencies have over county roads.
The legislators raised concerns that national government agencies were still in charge of county roads despite it being a devolved function.
Mr Edwin Sifuna (Nairobi, ODM) said that, despite the country’s road network being classified into national trunk roads and county roads, they were being managed by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha).
This, he said, has led to confusion, because, while Kenha is responsible for national trunk roads, the mandates of Kerra and Kura are unclear on county roads.
Mr Sifuna said according to the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution, county roads should be managed by the devolved units.
“There is a problem on classification of roads and which agencies are responsible. We need a discussion on whether national government agencies should still be in charge of the county roads,” Mr Sifuna said.
National trunk roads
For instance, the senator explained that, in Nairobi, all roads within the city county should be under a single agency except for the national trunk roads.
“For example, Dar es Salaam Road and Homa Bay Road off Enterprise Road are under different agencies with the former under Kura. This makes one move from one agency to the other looking for the person responsible for the maintenance of such roads,” Mr Sifuna said. That national government agencies are still controlling devolved functions is a matter that should come to an end, the senator said.
The conundrum, Mr Sifuna added, extends to other devolved functions like health, where “we still have an agency like Kemsa [Kenya Medical Supplies Authority] receiving much of the health budget,” Mr Sifuna noted.
During his vetting on Wednesday, Roads, Transport and Public Works Cabinet nominee Kipchumba Murkomen acknowledged the confusion, saying, it should be cleared up to make sure no entity is taking credit for roads it did not build.
Stalled roads
Meanwhile, Roads, Transportation and Housing committee chairperson Karungo Thang’wa (Kiambu, UDA) has asked the national government to complete all stalled roads.
“As a committee, we will be visiting the stalled road projects to give recommendations,” he said.
Mr Murkomen had told the committee that many road projects had delayed due to the Sh140 billion owed to contractors by the national government.
MS Peris Tobiko (Nominated) lamented that Kajiado County still lags behind in infrastructural development despite being part of the Nairobi metropolitan area.
She called for increased partnership between counties that are part of the metropolis in order to develop their infrastructure. BY DAILY NATION