Limuru residents hold demo over poor state of road

Businesses came to a standstill as residents of Kinyogori village held a protest over the bad status of their road.

They said the road that starts at Limuru town, passes Kinyogori and ends at Murengeti in Limuru constituency in Kiambu county is in a bad state and has caused increased insecurity.

The rioters blocked the road using stones, twigs and logs, stopping anyone who wanted to pass.

Police who had arrived in time had a difficult time removing the stones used to barricade the road.

"Thieves waylay people in the evening and rob them since very few boda boda operators accept to ferry people owing to potholes, and its slippery nature when it rains," said Michael Wainaina.

Another resident Nelly Njeri says that they are forced to close their businesses early in the evening from 6 pm in fear of thugs turning to them.

"We have green groceries, shops and kiosks which we are forced to close so early since people go home early in fear of being attacked," she added.

A resident Purity Muthoni alleges that she sustained a fracture on her hand when the boda boda she was traveling on slid on a slippery road and rolled.

Led by an activist Stephen Mwangi, the locals asked area MP John Kiragu to ensure the road is improved.

Mwangi said the roads were commissioned for construction last year by Kenya Rural Roads Authority and former MP Peter Mwathi but its construction stopped last year under unclear circumstances.

They are also appealing to President William Ruto to intervene in the matter. 

"We want to know what happened. We want to bring to an end the unnecessary insecurity," he said.

Mwangi confronted police led by Limuru town police station OCS Stephen Mwaura and led the rioters to Kiragu's office where the residents handed over their petition to the MP's officials.

An official from the legislator's office Earnest Gachumi received the petition saying the MP was not in the office and that he was in another meeting.

However, Gachumi said he could not comment anything regarding the petition and the issue at hand, but promised the residents that they would look at it and discuss the matter with KeRRA.