Residents of Rombo in Kajiado South subcounty woke up at 5 am Friday and closed the only road connecting Taveta and Loitokitok towns saying its in poor state.
No vehicle was allowed to use the road paralysing business in Rombo town on Friday being a market day.
“We are bitter because, for 40 years, this road has always been impassable during the rains,” Alex Saruni said.
Saruni said the residents are angry with the leadership in the area as they have always used the road to seek votes during elections.
“All those we have elected in every election use this road as bait for votes. They always tell us that if elected, the road will be tarmacked,” said Joshua Matiko, a farmer in Rombo.
The demos that started from Rombo town extended to Eralai and Ilassit towns, on one side and to Taveta on the other side.
Matiko said the distance from Rombo to Illasit is only 12km yet it takes vehicles more than five hours to complete the journey.
“This is an agricultural area where we produce tomatoes, onions, maize and all other farm products, but we cannot take them to the market now because of this road,” Matiko said.
Farm products from Rombo feed Taveta and Loitiokitok and the state of the road has seen the cost of onions spiral in the last two weeks.
The demonstrators blocked the sections of the road as police officers, who seemed to be angered also by the state of the road, watched from afar.
The residents claimed several sick people had died on the road before they reached the hospital in Loitokitok because of the road's condition.
Several people who attempted to put murram on the same road and repair parts of it were arrested and locked up last year.
The residents wondered why the government had kept postponing the repair works on the road.
Peter Lotu said he harvests tonnes of onions and tomatoes but they end up rotting because many transporters cannot access the area because of the bad road.
The farmers who took part in the Friday demos from Illasit to Rombo asked the government to murram the road.
“We are not even interested in the tarmacking of the road, but we want a passable road. Let them put enough murram to allow us to take our farm products to the markets,” Philip Osoi said.
He said the farmers are producing a lot of farm products which do not reach the markets.
“This has made us poor, we cannot even afford to pay fees for our children and yet we harvest a lot of food,” Osoi said.
The area MP Samuel Sakimba said he is in talks with the government about the road.
Sakimba said he is also not happy with the state of the road that had remained like so for many years.
The demonstrators said they will block the road until those in government feel the pinch.
