33 kilometres of trouble put Governor Mutua on road to history

Governor Dr Alfred Mutua (centre) accompanied by CORD and Jubilee leaders on a walk on the newly tarmacked road moments after he officially opened it.  [PHOTOS: DANIEL NZIA/STANDARD]

Sometime in 1996, Peninnah Wanjiku Mwangi was forced to abandon her newly constructed business premises at Kithimani junction on the Thika-Garissa highway after it failed to attract potential tenants.

Although the hamlet was connected to the national power grid before the "arrival" of the tarmac road, transport infrastructure in lower Machakos was in a despicable state.

Wanjiku's main setback was the road that connected Kithimani to Machakos town to the south via Kabaa, Masii and Makutano townships. She abandoned her premises and relocated her grocery business to Githurai 45, Nairobi.

But two months ago, she made a return to the premises that has two shops, a single bedroom house and five bedsitters.  The value of property along the entire Kithimani-Kabaa-Masii-Makutano road has rapidly escalated barely a month after the Machakos county government completed its upgrade to a class 'C' all-weather road. The road, which was tarmacked in a record of three months with eleven contractors on site has elicited varied views.

High demand

"The demand for residential space has gone up. The 50 by 100 (feet) commercial plots that three months ago cost Sh30,000, are currently priced at between Sh100,000 and Sh200,000," says Wanjiku.

She says: "Inversely, the cost of doing business has substantially diminished. Public service vehicles used to charge Sh250-300 fare for the 33 kilometres, which has plummeted to between Sh150-200, while a bunch of bananas or oranges that attracted Sh30 previously is down to Sh20."

Although work is still in-progress, the road's drainage system is poor. Its irregular width, which reflects the different specification the eleven contractors may have used, is a likely recipe for fatal accidents, especially bridges,  despite the low traffic. Add on the thin layer of tarmac, there is a possibility of the thin layer peeling off during rain seasons.During long rains, the journey took even a whole day as vehicles got stuck in mud, but this has reduced to just 25 minutes! So why is the road eliciting a lot of interest after costing just a third of what it would have to make it a 'standard' class 'B' road? Even to uninitiated eye, the civil engineering works by the eleven contractors who tendered to construct three kilometres each at a modest cost of Sh650 million down from a budget of Sh1.6 billion, the civil engineering works look substandard.

When The Standard on Saturday  toured the road this week following reports of the bitumen already peeling off barely a month after it was commissioned by Governor Alfred Mutua, it found a team of engineers and county senior officials at Kabaa supervising the marking of the road billed as an important arterial link of Garissa, Thika and Machakos towns.

Requisite standards

One of the engineers who has overseen the project from inception to completion admits the road "may" not meet the requisite standards, but contends that what has been achieved outweighs the standard and quality concerns about road. "If we keep trailers and other heavy duty trucks off the road, it has a guarantee of five years," he says.

"To do the road, we obtained guidance from the national government, part of which was to follow the existing alignment. To reduce the cost further, we resolved to do a low volume-fill road suited for light traffic. The alignment is ideal for areas that receive low rainfall," said Machakos County Chief Engineer Tom Omae.

"Fears caused by the short period it took to complete the road are unfounded because there were eleven contracts that were executed simultaneously. If the road were to adhere to the standard specifications of a typical class 'C' road, it would have cost Sh1.4 billion. A single contractor would have taken 44 months to complete it," explains Eng Omae.

The villages that bestride the Makutano-Kithimani Road have huge winery potential of drought resistant mango species, which dominate the semi-arid  landscape. Paw paws and lemon are prime crops for the Garissa, Thika and Machakos town markets. This is the view of Gladys Mweni Musau, a resident of Kitwamba village, near Masii town.

"Local transport has improved and is now cheaper. During rainy seasons, we used to experience problems. We could not take our crops to the market in town and the mangoes were rotting in the farms," she says.

Street lights on the entire 33 kilometres has enabled the government to install CCTV cameras, which Mweni says has enhanced security.

When he commissioned the road on July 3, Dr Mutua hailed the feat as a milestone in infrastructure development of the county since independence.

Austerity measures

When the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) sought to question him on the allegations, Dr Mutua obtained court orders restraining the anti-graft agency from grilling him. Why then would the governor opt for court orders if his spending were above-board? It is a question, The Standard on Saturday sought answers from Dr Mutua. The governor who was in Mombasa this week for his county's cabinet budget retreat delegated his media officers to respond.He noted: "We are also proving that by employing austerity measures, a reserve price and by eliminating corruption, we can spend Sh650 million instead of the proposed Sh1.6 billion for the road." It is, however, these allegations of corruption that are weighing down on the governor's "speeded up" development strategy.

Meshack Musyoki, deputy media manager, explains: "The objective is to spur economic activity in Yatta, Masinga and Mwala sub-counties, which have great potential, but lack infrastructure. However, it should be on record that Dr Mutua is not avoiding investigation. All he wants is to be told first the grounds of investigations by EACC."