Residents of Maturubari village in Kanjuiri ward in Ol Kalou have urged Nyandarua Governor Francis Kimemia and MCA Suleiman Kihika to fix a road that cuts through the area.
They said the 3.5km Kanjuiri–Karebe road has been a nightmare for years and has subjected them to exploitation as they take their farm produce to the market.
The villagers said the two leaders convinced them to vote for them during the 2017 election campaigns with the promise that they would prioritise the road once elected but deserted them soon after they won.
They said they can no longer stand the suffering. For the past two-and-a-half years, youths from the area have been meeting on Tuesdays at a quarry and extracting stones to fix the road. They then contribute money to hire tractors or lorries—or fuel those occasionally donated by well-wishers—to transport the gravel to the road to seal potholes and gulleys.
Kanjuiri assistant chief George Thuo, who joins the 50 young men every Tuesday to monitor the progress and give moral support, last Tuesday told journalists the situation was recently aggravated after Heka Dam overflowed, and the water destroyed some sections of the road.
Thuo said although the Kimemia administration is doing an excellent job on county roads and the Roads department is sufficiently informed of the situation in the village, they could not wait.
"We agreed with the youth that we do what we can to help ourselves because we don’t know how long it will take before the county government attend to our problems,” he said.
Thuo said since they embarked on the project, they have used 15 lorries of stones and sealed some gulleys and potholes.
"But we are calling on the government to intervene as they have adequate resources, especially now that the rain has subsided,” he said.
Reached for comment, county Transport, Energy and Public Works executive Mary Mugwanja told the Star she understands the problem in Kanjuiri. She said the area constitutes her focus during this dry season, with Sh23 million ready for roads in the ward.
“We are actually in the process of hiring extra equipment and machinery, specifically for Kanjuiri, Charagita, Mirangine and Gathanji wards, which were worst hit by the heavy rains,” she said.
Residents mainly grow potatoes and pyrethrum and keep dairy cattle. Boniface Kamau said taking their produce to the market during the rainy season has always been an expensive affair.
“To get a bag of potatoes from the farm to the shortest distance accessible by lorries, one pays a tractor or a motorbike owner Sh200 per bag. This means by the end of the day, all your sweat is lost,” he said.
Kamau said Maturubari residents were very happy when the county government purchased and launched road equipment worth Sh500 million earlier in the year but have waited in vain for it to be used to save them the agony.
He said when they ask the leaders when the road will be fixed, they are told it was awarded to a contractor, who has never shown up. Kamau said during Mashujaa Day celebrations at Ol Kalou Stadium, Kimemia said it had been difficult to build roads in Kanjuiri because of persistent downpours. He, however, dismissed the governor's remark as an unreasonable excuse as it rains for two weeks and the rain subsides.
Pharis Wainaina said those extracting stones from the quarry do not do so because they have nothing to do. They, too, have crops to tend to on their farms and are also involved in potato packaging but the desire to safeguard their hard-earned little profit motivates them to meet every Tuesday, he said. He said they will not relent even if it takes them another year to fix it.
Josiah Kimotho said they thought, and still do, that the recent reshuffle of Nyandarua cabinet where Ndung’u Wangenye was replaced in the Roads department by Mary Mugwanja will end their problems given that Mugwanja is a “great performer”.
“But another day she was lamenting that our roads have been deplorable since Independence. That narrative will not help us. All we need to create wealth is good roads,” he said.
Edited by F'Orieny
