Teso residents protest over bad roads

Residents of Amukura East in Teso South on Tuesday demonstrated over bad state of roads.

Protests have been staged for the better part of 2021. The recent demonstration drew over 500 residents who demanded to know why area leaders have been lax to rehabilitate roads in the ward.

The demonstrators claim most farmers are counting losses after sugar factories failed to ferry their cane citing the deplorable state of the Malaba-Kosera-Mungatsi road.

They also said insecurity in the area was on the rise because police officers do not carry out patrols or respond to incidents of insecurity.

The demonstration was held less than a month after a similar protest along the Amagoro-Angurai road in Teso North as boda boda riders demanded for rehabilitation of the impassable road.

The riders accuse the county government of failing to repair the road that links Amagoro town, the headquarters of Teso North, to Angurai, the third largest town in the subcounty.

During the protest, commercial motorcyclists barricaded the road with logs rendering transport along the route impossible.

This was the third protest since the year began.

The first demonstration was held in February as residents pushed for the rehabilitation of the road.

It was followed by another protest in May which saw boda boda riders drawn from Malaba, Amagoro, Kocholya and Angurai plant bananas along the route as they called for the intervention of area leaders.

Area MP Oku Kaunya had been at loggerheads with the county government over whose responsibility is it to repair the road that connects Amagoro and Angurai through Kakapel.

Whereas the MP claims the road’s rehabilitation is a preserve of the county government, officers from the county’s road department argue that the road is under the Kenya Rural Roads Authority.

Kaunya has consistently called on roads executive George Okwara to stop apportioning blame and take responsibility to repair the dilapidated road.

The MP, however, said that if the county takes long to rehabilitate the asset, he will seek KeRRA's intervention.

“Okwara is misleading our people,” the MP said when he spoke to the Star.

“We only come in to help them when they have failed to do their work.

"The reality is that when the bridge on the same road broke, Okwara and deputy governor Moses Mulomi came and promised the people that they would repair that road. They only repaired the bridge and left the road.”

When the Star contacted Okwara, he declined to commit on whether repair works along the road is the preserve of the county government and referred the Star to KeRRA.

“All roads are on the map. If you get a good Google map, it should tell you the road from Amagoro to Angurai is graded under which grade and therefore it falls under which authority,” he said.

KeRRA regional director Jared Omondi, however, clarified that most repair works along the Amagoro-Angurai road is the duty of the county government since it is not classified as a Class C road.

Omondi said the stretch that runs from Amagoro town to Awata before branching to Aboloi is classified as a Class C road which is under KeRRA.

The stretch from Awata that runs to the Malaba-Angurai junction is a rural access road which he said is under the county government. This is the stretch that is dilapidated and is almost impassable.

Omondi said every authority should shoulder the burden of repairing the road categorised under it.

He spoke to the Star after inspecting the road.

In March, two demonstrations staged by boda boda riders were held in protest of the poor state of the Moding-Kawalun junction.

The road, classified as Class C has since been tarmacked.

Other protests were held in April over the bad state of Akoret-Akichelesit-Adanya road which is under the county government.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)