MPs Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central, CCU), Danson Mungatana (Garsen Narc-Kenya), Pollyns Ochieng’ (Nyakach, ODM) said
the minister had to fly to the hotspot in Taita Taveta County and assure the residents that the works on the road were in the pipeline.“For two nights, people have been sleeping on the road. This is almost like a national crisis, because goods are not flowing from the port to the rest of the country and the region,” said Mr Mungatana.
Mr Imanyara added that the angry demonstrators on the Mombasa-Nairobi highway were simply frustrated at the government’s lack of commitment in constructing roads in the expansive county.
Mr Bett tried to avoid making the journey, but the MPs insisted that the residents needed to be “given hope that something was being done to address the situation on the road".
“The Mombasa-Nairobi road has nothing to do with the road in question,” said Mr Bett. “We’ve got roads that have a similar situation all across the country; shall the minister be flying there whenever the public is up in arms?”
The minister said he had officers all across the country and they represented him fully. In fact, he said, his officers in Voi were aware of the problem and were dealing with it.
But as the minister spoke in Parliament, an MP, John Mututho (Naivasha, Kanu) cut him short and insisted that he better make the trip and addresses the matter.
“I reached that spot and the traffic is at a standstill. I was forced to drive back to Mombasa, leave my car and take a plane to the city,” said Mututho.
Temporary deputy Speaker Philip Kaloki put pressure on the minister to say if he’s going to fly there or drive: “Shall we say you’re going to go down there today?”
“Yes. I will have to take a chopper. But let it be on record that the last time I took a chopper to inspect roads, some residents insisted that I ought to have driven, so as to feel the pinch that they feel,” said Mr Bett.
The minister, however, told MPs that Sh20 million had been set aside for routine maintenance of the road.
He said the bids close on November 19, after which valuations begin for the works to begin on the ground in “early March next year".
“There’s nothing else I can do. That is the law and we must follow it,” he said.
Besides, he told MPs to supplement the government’s efforts to improve the road network in the country through the use of the constituency roads fund. Each constituency got Sh27 million to tarmac the roads.
The closure of the Mombasa-Nairobi Highway held the country and other East African Community member states economy at ransom following delayed delivery of cargo to and from the Port of Mombasa.
The protest started on Monday when Matatu owners withdrew their vehicles from the road and were later joined by the local residents on Tuesday. They barricaded the road with boulders and burning tyres.
A contingent of general service unit descended on the protesters who had camped at the road for the whole night and beat them up.
Mr Bett said the police were working hard to ensure the impasse was quashed. The Nation could not independently establish if Mr Bett made the trip as he had promised the House. He left Parliament as soon as he promised to take the flight and wasn’t present for the afternoon session.
Source: Daily Nation
The people of taita-taveta county are often gentle and long suffering ! The delay occasion by roads minster in getting the roads in county repaired and maintained caused a lot of aggravations to these people; because to them this road is not a luxury feature like a swimming-pool in tsavo-west nationalpark but a lifeline;the major hospital in the county is located in voi,therefore all major medical cases are refered to voi,if they can not be dealt with in local clinics ;. transporting sick people in an ambulance in this road,,at the condition it is at the moment, is equivalent to pronouncing a death sentence to them. More so in cases of spinal injures,stroke and bone -fracture victims .therefore prompt action is required by the minster in charge to remedy this situation .
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