The project was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta in June 2016 at Musikoma junction on the Bungoma – Mumias highway and was expected to be completed before the end of 2021
Frustration and condemnation among the people of Busia County have erupted after the recent sudden and un-explained halt to construction works on the multi-billion shillings Mungatsi – Musikoma highway. According to national treasury records seen by The Weekly Vision Online, the project was expected to cost about US$ 1.8 billion when it was launched in June 2016.
The project was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta in June 2016 at Musikoma junction on the Bungoma – Mumias highway and was expected to be completed before the end of this year. The Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA) project is critical to trade and services that run through Madende, Lwanikha, Buyofu, Mateka, Kimatuni to Muskoma in Bungoma County while the former three towns are located in Busia County with many feeder roads under the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) in between.
Emerging facts following our investigations on the ground indicate that the construction works on the Bungoma side of the highway has been completed from Musikoma to the boundary between the two counties near Buyofu town before the project ground to a total halt on the Busia County side. However, the story on the Busia side is horrendous with huge road foundation craters now filled with rainwater, murram dumps, incomplete and damaged diversion roads, long un-compacted segments among many other anomalies that have turned the abandoned road into a nightmare especially with the ongoing rains.
It is also a death trap that has seen at least ten people getting involved in road accidents between Mungatsi and Musikoma in the last two months thus triggering the furore, anger and frustration with others condemnation from residents worst hit by the collapse of the project.
A senior professional from the county who requested not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said: “Whether it is a KENHA or a CDF project, Mr Bunyasi squarely stands to blame for the whole mess on this road. It is a key road in his constituency and to his home. He should be at the forefront to ensure its completion by lobbying the agencies concerned
Fingers are now pointing to the Nambale Constituency legislator John Sakwa Bunyasi and Busia County Governor Sospeter Ojaamong for the collapse and failure to address the problem to ensure that the works resumes and gets completed to save them from the nightmares they are going through.
Nambale Constituancy MP Sakwa Bunyasi
A senior professional from the county who requested not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said: “Whether it is a KENHA or a CDF project, Mr Bunyasi squarely stands to blame for the whole mess on this road. It is a key road in his constituency and to his home. He should be at the forefront to ensure its completion by lobbying the agencies concerned.
The professional said that Mr Bunyasi’s own rural home is less than twenty metres from the beleaguered highway and the only direct connection to reach the legislator’s home. He echoed thousands of peoples’ sentiments from the county as to why the legislator remained silent over the matter when tarmac-king of the highway had been one of his top pledges to ensure it was done in all his two-term campaigns?
He said that even his predecessor Chris Okemo’s home is on the same highway less than a kilometre from the Buyofu market – why have they failed to complete this road which is extremely vital to many people? “The worst aspect of the whole business is the fact that under Okemo’s tenure as MP, he influenced the tarmac-king of that highway to be awarded to his close political and business associate Juma Construction Company which raked in hundreds of millions of shillings but did only basic grading and pocketed the cash,”
Our efforts to reach out to Bunyasi and Ojaamong for their responses on this matter were fruitless as the two leaders failed to answer our calls nor respond to our SMS inquiries.
The tender for the construction was then awarded to Zhongmie Company Ltd, a Chinese construction firm that has also done the Kakamega-Webuye-Kitale highway. Its leaders said the problem is the failure to release funds to complete the project. Inquiries at KENHA headquarters drew a blank as officials who refused to give their names said that the officers in charge of the project were not available.
The Busia County Branch of the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said the project construction collapse was adversely affecting a booming trade that had been flourishing between Busia and Bungoma County traders by curtailing transport navigation from the Mungatsi junction to Buyofu town.
“It does not matter whether it is a KENHA project or not because our people are losing millions of shillings daily in crippled trade and losing their lives in accidents that could have been prevented if the highway was complete. It is the shortest route to Bungoma, Kitale, Webuye, and Eldoret towns – Ojaamong and Bunyasi must take responsibility,” said KNCCI branch chairman Peter Kubebea.
Mr Kubebea argued that the Bungoma County government led by its governor Wycliffe Wangamati had been at the forefront on ensuring that the segment on their side of the road was completed and transport eased up to the Bungoma – Busia counties’ boundary near Buyofu.
He said instead the two leaders critical to the project had instead turned a blind eye on it by failing to ensure that they maintained pressure that funds to finance the construction of the project were constantly available like their counterparts did in Bungoma County did.
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