NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 20 – Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has said that the government will spend Sh200mn to repair roads in Kisumu damaged during protests.
Speaking in Isiolo county on Thursday, Murkomen said that the expressway that was destroyed during the protests cost the government half a billion to repair since the materials are expensive.
“The roads burnt in Kisumu for the last two weeks during the protests we will need not less than sh200million for that small area in town to fill the potholes that have developed on the road due to tire burning,” he said.
“Expressway machines cost Sh500mn because they are expensive, not like the sufurias on protestors heads.”
He continued to state that as a government, they support Martin Gitau, the petitioner, who filed a lawsuit in an effort to hold individuals responsible for the damage caused by the anti-government protests accountable.
“Because am an interested party in that case, we will go there and support the taxpayers by ensuring the organizers are held accountable on whatever damage caused by the protesters especially on the public properties,” he added.
Martin Gitau said the protests had caused deaths, property destruction and was likely to plunge the country into chaos if not stopped.
The petitioner is specifically seeking orders to stop the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday protests called by the opposition leaders over the escalating high cost of living.
Similar protests in past two weeks has cost lives of more than 15 people with over 300 injured, some seriously.
“That contrary to the law, the Respondents continue to mastermind, orchestrate and sponsor a systemic campaign of violent protests, chaos, destruction and death of innocent citizens as well as security officers,” Gitau says in the petition drawn by lawyer Adrian Kamotho.
On July 13, Murkomen said that during the anti-government demonstrations, vandals damaged the Nairobi Expressway to the tune of sh700mn which had left three toll plazas closed.
Moja Expressway Company, which operates the toll road linking Mlolongo to the Nairobi-Nakuru highway at Westlands via the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), said that motorists were not be able to access the Mlolongo, Syokimau and the standard gauge railway (SGR) toll stations which were closed.
Mlolongo, on the outskirts of the city, was the epicenter of riots that disrupted transport, vandalised the expressway, and generally caused mayhem.
The dividing wall of the expressway was destroyed, the iron fence looted and the thousands of flowers lining it crashed onto the scorched tarmac.
