• He pointed out that it is an inherited problem from the previous regime which failed to pay contractors.
• "These questions would have been asked five years ago, 2016, 2017, 2020 when all these projects stalled."
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Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has explained why President William Ruto has on some occasions been launching road projects that were launched years ago by his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta.
While responding to questions raised by MPs on Wednesday, Murkomen said some of the projects were long abandoned by the previous regime and contractors left the site due to the accumulation of pending bills.
"You have seen us even relaunch projects that were initially launched almost eight years ago because they were long forgotten like the case where the President was launching a project in Nyandarua county recently," Murkomen said.
"If a project has stayed for more than seven, eight years, it's long forgotten and Mr Speaker it needs to be given a new lease of life. It's like being redone for the first time," he added.
Murkomen was giving a status update on the progress of the completion of stalled road projects across the country.
He pointed out that it is an inherited problem from the previous regime which failed to pay contractors.
"These questions would have been asked five years ago, 2016, 2017, 2020 when all these projects stalled."
Murkomen told legislators that due to the huge pending bills owed to contractors, no new road project will be launched any time soon unless development partners fund them or unless Parliament allocates funds for emergency projects.
These emergencies, he said, include security roads and access roads to development projects such as affordable houses.
Meanwhile, Murkomen urged the National Treasury to allow the Ministry of Transport to negotiate with contractors to enable them to resume work as they await their pay.
He said the government owes contractors over Sh90 billion in pending bills but is unable to pay due to financial constraints.
"It is through the resumption plan that a few road projects across the country have resumed," he said.
"Cognizant of this financial situation, which has built up over the last five years, our first duty as a responsible government is to stop the situation from deteriorating further through concessional and affordable borrowing."
Murkomen said the have reached out to the committee concerned with the disbursement of Sh12 billion from the Annuity Fund to enable the government to pay some of the contractors so they can resume work.
He, however, pointed out that the Sh12 billion is a drop in the ocean considering some contractors are owed up to Sh17 billion.
"Some of the local contractors we owe them up to Sh5 billion," he said.