Two people escaped death when electric poles came down on Kitengela Road on Sunday evening following a downpour.
John Njiriga and Samuel Mburu were riding a motorbike after the rain started subsiding. On reaching Miriam House, one electric pole fell right behind them.
Two other poles came down as they moved on towards Kenya Commercial Bank junction. Njiriga on Monday said he was thankful to God for saving their lives.
After the poles fell on the road, motorists and pedestrians feared being electrocuted.
The three poles, on one side of the road, fell after flood water swept away the soil around them. The contractor working on the road dug up trenches along the power line and left them open.
Had the poles fallen minutes after the rain stopped, many people on the busy road could have been injured or even lost their lives because of neglect by the county government that sanctioned construction of the road.
Kenya Power engineers arrived at the scene at 8pm after switching off power to the affected section.
Business persons along the section of the road pointed fingers at the county government for allowing a contractor working on the road to do a shoddy job.
Area MCA Francis Kaesha claimed the road was awarded to Titikas Ltd from Loitokitok to tarmac at the cost of Sh40 million.
“These people are not complaining for the first time because we have even told Governor Joseph Lenku about the shoddy work being done by this contractor, who appears untouchable,” Kaesha said.
Kaesha said he once summoned the CEC in charge of roads, Alex Kilowa, to see the substandard material used but he never took any action.
The one-kilometre road has been expanded to the doors of buildings.
Kilowa could not say why construction of the road stopped in mid-March.
“Unless I check with my people, I cannot tell you if the contractor has been paid anything or not,” he said on the phone.
Efforts to seek a comment from the contractor hit a snag as no one picked our calls.
