by WANGECHI WANG'ONDU
The government will from Monday next week start compensating owners of land taken for the construction of the Kenol-Sagana–Marua road.
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia on Friday said Sh15 billion will be disbursed through the National Land Commission in form of compensation to landowners from Kirinyaga and Nyeri counties.
Some 500 Kirinyaga landowners and another 900 from Nyeri county will get their payouts in phase one, Macharia said.
The CS spoke in Kibingoti in Kirinyaga county during an inspection tour of the project.
He expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far. Macharia thanked residents for trusting the government and giving away their land before even before they are compensated. He said the move hastened the pace of the works.
“The residents cooperated very well with the contractor thus making the project start without hindrances. We are also grateful to them for being patient this far. I want to assure them that their land compensation will start being processed from Monday next week,” Macharia said.
The 84km road is being constructed under two phases. Phase one starts from Kenol in Murang'a county to Sagana and will cost Sh8.5 billion. It covers 48km.
Phase two covers 36km from Sagana to Marua and will cost Sh6.1 billion.
Macharia said phase one is expected to be complete and ready for use by December.
The entire project will be completed by next year. It had initially been scheduled to take three and half years but will now be done in two and half years.
He said the road is critical as it connects the northern corridor from Nairobi to the Lapset corridor in Isiolo. It will also ease movement of goods and people and open up many interior parts of the Mt Kenya region.
Macharia said the Jubilee administration has so far carpeted 9,500km of roads against the promise of 10,000 kilometres it made to Kenyans in 2013.
He said the government’s target is to have 11,000km of road constructed by the end of President Uhuru Kenyatta's term in August next year.
“We want to make sure that no part of the country is left behind in terms of infrastructural development. We have launched roads from Central to Nyanza, to Coast and many other parts. The government’s goal is to open up the country so that we can enhance movement of goods and people for economic growth.”
Edited by P.O
