A section of Embu leaders has asked President Uhuru Kenyatta to facilitate the tarmacking of the 40km Kivue-Makengi-Kevote road.
The leaders claimed that the road has remained untarred despite presidents Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru himself promising to upgrade it.
Kenyatta promised the tarmacking in 1972, while Uhuru did so in 2016 while in Kevote.
Embu Senator Njeru Ndwiga, MPs Cecily Mbarire (nominated), Erick Muchangi (Runyenjes), Embu Catholic Dioceses Bishop Paul Kariuki, MCAs Paul Muchangi and Margaret Kariuki praised the President of initiating many projects in the region.
But they urged the President to leave a legacy by facilitating the tarmacking of the road in an area which has great agriculture potential.
They spoke during a fundraiser for the building of Kevote Catholic Parish clerics' house. The event was presided over by Health CS Sicily Kariuki.
Mbarire said when Uhuru was in Kevote in 2016, he promised to look into the issue.
She said the road has been one of the main projects talked about in the Mt Kenya political caucus and is in a list of projects before Transport CS James Macharia.
Mbarire asked CS Kariuki to tell the President to honour his promise and that the people will be very happy.
“We would like to send you (CS Kariuki ) to the president to tell him that one of the major challenges of people in Kevote-Makengi-Kivue is this road. We hope that just as he promised us, it will be tarmacked soon,” MP Muchangi said.
Muchangi lamented rogue matatu operators who hike fares on the route whenever it rains in the area.
The normal fare is Sh60 to Embu, but when it rains it is hiked five times Sh300, and residents will be if it’s carpeted, he said.
Bishop Kariuki said the tarmacking of the road will improve the work of the parish in the service to God and his people.
Kariuki recalled that in 2016 when the President visited the parish, he promised that the road would be tarmacked.
MCA Muchangi said the road connects many schools and that its being impassible had led the area to stagnate.
He said he remembered Presiden Kenyatta promising in 1972 that the road would be tarmacked, then Kibaki did the same and Uhuru in 2016 but nothing so far has been done.
CS Kariuki promised to pass the message of the leaders to the President noting that unity of the area leaders and the people was paramount in ensuring that projects are implemented.
She also called for the wiping out of illicit brews in the area and asked county commissioner Abdullahi Galgalo to give her a report of crackdown of the brews in a week’s time
(edited by O. Owino)
