Nairobi City county and the urban roads authority are pointing fingers at each other over deplorable roads.
In the city centre and the estates, roads are in a pathetic condition, some already rendered impassable by floods.
Garbage is littered everywhere. Roadsides and backstreets have been turned into dumpsites. Rainwater mixed with trash and raw sewage flows freely in the estates, slums and parts of the CBD, making life unbearable.
Governor Mike Sonko this week shifted the blame to the Kenya Urban Roads Authority after residents expressed their disappointment in social media.
He released a list of 58 roads and lanes in the CBD, totaling about 34.6km, he said are under Kura and are in a sorry state.
“Bahati, Kimathi, Maringo, Buruburu estate roads are a mess. I hope they will be re-carpeted, not covering up the potholes. We are watching and waiting when this will happen and the quality of the final job,” resident Sheeku Mwaniki commented on the governor’s post on Facebook on Tuesday.
Wesley Ombaye, another resident, posted, “Mowlem estate is in a pathetic situation, governor, from sewage to impassable roads. Kindly do the needful.”
Sonko had posted that his administration had started repairing roads in the CBD and in all the 17 sub-counties even though most of them are under Kura.
But Kura director general Silas Kinoti said the authority is in charge of only two roads in the CBD – Kenyatta Avenue and Haile Selassie Avenue - and nine others outside the city centre.
They are Jogoo road, Outer Ring, James Gichuru, northern bypass, southern bypass, Landhies, Langata, Ngong and Juja road.
Kinoti challenged the county government to account for Sh500 million it receives from the Road Maintenance Levy Fund yearly.
“The governor is a leader and we do not want to argue with him. We have a roads classification book that the he should check,” he said.
Kinoti, however, said Kura has been instructed by the President to repair all roads in the city following public anger over their poor state.
On Thursday, Sonko blamed rain. “Potholes are caused by the expansion and contraction of ground water after it has entered under the pavement. When water freezes, it expands,” he posted on Facebook.
But resident Cheruiyot Leonard commented, “Nairobians are not interested in knowing what causes the potholes. That is meant for your engineers. Nairobi people need to see the potholes fixed, period!”
