Speaking on Capital in the Morning show, Macharia stated that the government has accelerated the process of construction and tarmacking of roads countrywide to serve all Kenyans/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 10 – Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia says road expansion is among the key achievements of the Jubilee Government.
Speaking on Capital in the Morning show, Macharia stated that the government has accelerated the process of construction and tarmacking of roads countrywide to serve all Kenyans.
He pointed out that a major achievement is the construction of the Isiolo-Moyale Road connecting Kenya to the Ethiopia border, which when completed will be about 500 kilometres.
“We launched only about six months ago a program to do our rural roads… 4,000 km. And I can assure Kenyans that the program is right on the mark. In particular we have about 1,600 Km of roads already undergoing construction,” he stated.
He stated that another goal is the completion of the construction of the Outering road, which he indicated is about 35 percent completed.
“Then if you look at the highways, take for example the road from Isiolo to Moyale connecting Kenya to the Ethiopian border, this is 95 percent complete and it will be having a length of up to about 500 kilometres,” he indicated.
The Transport CS explained that the sector has a lot to celebrate, including the progress made on the Standard Gauge Railway, construction of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and roads construction.
“In the next few months, you will see the President going across every county and constituency launching these roads because not a single county has been left behind. We are doing it across the country, in fact we have developed an aide memoire done alphabetically starting from Baringo to the last county to help us in this,” he said.
Macharia further stated that significant progress has been made in the construction of roads since the Jubilee Government took over power.
He pointed out that the government has constructed 32 trunk roads across the country.
He indicated that the construction works on a double decker highway on Mombasa road is set to commence early next year and it is expected that it will reduce the heavy traffic jam along the highway.
“We are told that if we quickly do the designs and everything else, we can actually start the construction of the double decker road by February 1 next year and that what we want to do to fast track it because the misery of Kenyans cannot be taken any further. Any investment made in infrastructure is an investment in a productive aspect. It will give you dividends,” he said.
“We focused on low volume roads and we have another 32 national trunk roads that we are doing in addition to the 4,100 km project and the road from the oil fields in Turkana is one of them,” he stated.
Macharia further explained that efforts are being made to fast track the completion of the Standard Gauge Railway but says that construction works are ahead of schedule.
