The Kenya Urban Roads Authority will tarmac and recarpet 31km of roads in Thika constituency, Kiambu county, at a cost of Sh1.7 billion.
The roads include the 18km Gatuanyaga-Munyu-Kang’oki road in Thika East, which has been in a deplorable state since time immemorial, and 13km of roads within Thika CBD.
Roads that will be recarpeted within Thika CBD and its environs include Commercial, Cross, General Kago, Haile Selassie, Harry Thuku, Kenyatta Highway, Kwame Nkurumah, Magoko, Bull and Mama Ngina.
Others are Stadium, Temple, Thika Girls, Uhuru Street, Upper Hill and Workshop. The roads will be re-carpeted at a cost of Sh700 million.
Kura already placed the project’s contract advertisement in a local daily on June 9 and survey work for the roads has been completed, according to area MP Patrick Wainaina.
“We are glad that after intensive lobbying, the government has heard our pleas and agreed to improve the road infrastructure in our region. These roads will ease mobility with Thika CBD which is essential for traders and investors and give the town a new look,” Wainaina said.
The Gatuanyaga road that will start at Gatuanyaga junction towards Munyu via Githima and exit at Kang’oki area will be tarmacked at a cost Sh1 billion. It will be the first tarmacked road in villages within Thika East region.
MP Wainaina who spoke in Thika town on Saturday said the road will open up the area, which has never had a tarmac road before and end the suffering of residents who have been grappling with the deplorable state of the road for decades.
“The roads in Thika East especially in Gatuanyaga ward have for decades been in poor conditions especially during rainy seasons. The situation is usually worsened by hundreds of lorries and trucks that ferry stones from quarries in the area. But this will soon be a thing of the past once the road is tarmacked,” Wainaina said.
He pointed out that the area fetches the county government huge amounts of revenue from the quarries in Komo, Munyu and Githima but has been neglected in terms of infrastructural development.
Edited by Henry Makori
