A section of the road near the Nakuru Railway Bridge under repair by China Road and Bridge Corporation. China has defended its dominance in road construction in Kenya. Photo/JOSEPH KIHERI
China has defended the dominance by its firms in securing road construction tenders in Kenya and termed it “a win-win situation” for both parties.
Chinese firms have in recent years won several tenders in the country’s major road expansion programmes, locking out local firms from the lucrative contracts worth billions of shillings.
Treasury has in its current budget for 2010/11 set aside about Sh78.6 billion for spending on road construction.
Giant firms
Two giant Chinese firms— China Road and Bridge Corporation and Wu Yi are currently undertaking major infrastructure projects in Kenya, including the Sh10 billion expansion of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the building or re-carpeting of roads and motorways under the Northern Corridor Transport improvement project.
China Road and Bridge Corporation has the largest fraction of the Northern Corridor roads project while China Wu Yi won the contract for phase one of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Old Embakasi Airport upgrade at a cost of Sh2.6 billion in 2006.
The dominance by Chinese firms has, however, elicited protests among local contractors and some communities living around project sites.
While local contractors blamed the Government for raising their demands on firms during tendering of projects like requiring experience on big projects, some labour activists claimed employees of the Chinese firms were taking away local jobs.
China’s deputy minister for Transport Giao Hong Feng, however, said the involvement of Chinese firms in Kenyan road construction projects was above board and beneficial to both parties.
“We have generated practical benefits,” he told a news conference in Nairobi on Monday when he paid a courtesy call on Roads minister Franklin Bett.
“We have offered a win-win cooperation situation” He said Chinese construction firms had created jobs for about 1,400 Kenyans in ongoing projects across the country.
“Chinese companies have only offered their nationals management and technical jobs which account for just 10 per cent. The rest is all given to local staff,” the minister said.
Despite complaints by local contractors, Chinese firm have won admiration from the public for their efficiency and speed, which have helped turn around the country’s road network from its dilapidated state a few years ago.
“We have confidence in Chinese contractors for the good job they have done and continue to do,” Mr Bett said at the end of his meeting with Mr Feng and challenged Kenyan road construction firms to improve their standards and take on Chinese companies.
In the past, some contractors gave the sector a bad name through project delays, shoddy work that frayed soon after completion and diversion of project funds.
Local contractors have also faced criticism for lack of capacity to handle big assignments.
Mr Bett, however, said two planned legislation through –the Engineers Bill and the National Contractors Authority Bill—would help deal with such rot.
“We shall tighten the noose such that if a firm takes on a contract then it would have to take it through to the end or risk blacklisting,” he said.
Meanwhile the minister revealed that the Kenya was in talks with the Chinese government over the construction of a new dual carriageway that would help ease traffic in the southern part of Nairobi.
“We are looking up to a dual carriage way on Ngong road that would run from the City mortuary round- about to Adams Arcade then move on to Karen and back to Langata,” Mr Bett.
Feasibility studies on the new dual-carriage road project are ongoing and the government hopes to close a deal on its funding by June.
The minister also said that work on the planned Sh17.1 billion southern by-pass, expected to ease traffic around JKIA, would also begin in about 36 months time.
He warned property developers and utility firms against putting up structures and cables along major highways without prior authority from his ministry.
The minister claimed that the relocation of power lines on the Nairobi-Thika super highway alone had cost the government close to Sh1 billion.
“We are urging utility firms and developers to first get clearance from us because the cost of relocating facilities on road reserves is too heavy and leads to wastage of funds that would have been put to good use elsewhere,” Mr Bett said.
