Economy

Highways authority to spend Sh120m to curb road vandals

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Signs erected on Thika Road, August 15, 2012. Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHA) will spend more than Sh120 million in the next 12 months to keep vandals away from Mombasa and Thika roads. File

The Kenya National Highways Authority (KenHA) will spend more than Sh120 million in the next 12 months to keep vandals away from Mombasa and Thika roads.

The authority says it has spent Sh110 million to repair street lighting on Mombasa Road between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and the Central Business District.

“Instead of using the road maintenance levy to make more roads we are using the money to repeat the work we have already done,” Samuel Ogege the general manager in charge of maintenance at KenHA.

Ogege said the authority is currently procuring the services of a contractor who will permanently patrol Thika road at cost of Sh6 million a month.

“It has now stopped being a maintenance issue to become vandalism issue,” he said.

KenHA currently pays Sh4 million to another company to guard against theft of lighting system on Mombasa Road.

The government restricted the exports of scrap metal giving some people a leeway to export up to July 2012, but recycling industries say exports are still continuing despite the end of the window.

Other East African member states such as Uganda and Tanzania totally banned scrap metal exports. The government this year passed a bill which saw the penalty of a vandal put a period of not less than 10 years and or a fine not less than Sh5 million.

Officials at Telkom Orange however say the judiciary has been giving vandals lesser punishment than the one stipulated in the law.