Infrastructure Principal Secretary John Mosonik told the Nation that while it is true there were ongoing projects when the current administration came to power, a lot more has been accomplished in the last four years.

 

"Over last few days, the number of kilometres of roads in the country has become a topical issue.

 

"It has attracted quite a lot of attention in the media as to exactly how many kilometres have been built.

 

"People are saying there are no roads that have been built. Some are even saying that the construction of roads has been skewed in favour of some areas," Mr Mosonik said.

 

ROADS BUILT

 

However, unlike other services, roads were tangible and could easily be pointed out, the PS explained.

 

According to him, since March 2013 when Jubilee came to power, the three road construction agencies: Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRa) have built 1,822.4 kilometres of new roads in the country.

 

In addition, 888.04 kilometres have either been reconstructed or rehabilitated, bringing the total length achieved in the four years to 2,710.08 kilometres by this month, he said.

 

"The different figures that sometimes emerge is because people get the information from different sources. Some go to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, others know their own sources but here we have up to date figures and which nobody has come to clarify with me. What the President has been saying is the correct figures from us," he said.

 

He said there was a big misconception that the government had overlooked some regions in road works.

 

MONEY SPENT

 

According to the ministry, the combined roads projects portfolio in Nyanza is 334.8 kilometres costing Sh89.3 billion while coast region has benefitted from 221.4 kilometres, costing the taxpayer Sh102.5 billion.

Source : allafrica.com