The government has disbursed Sh32.9 billion to road agencies for maintenance amid payment delays that have made it difficult for contractors to deal with repairs promptly and anticipate damage.
The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) said on Tuesday it had released the funds to the three road agencies and the Kenya Wildlife Services which maintains park roads in the country.
The funds are collected from motorists through the Sh18 per-litre road maintenance levy and transit tolls.
In the financial year 2021/2022, Kenya Roads Board collected a total of Sh87.4 billion comprising roads maintenance levy and transit tolls for the development and maintenance of the road network in Kenya.
“Kenya Roads Board has disbursed Sh32.98 billion for the half year 2022/23 towards the maintenance of various roads in the country. Funds have been released to compliant road agencies for implementation of road works as per the annual public roads programme for the financial year 2022/23,” said KRB in a public notice on Tuesday.
In the latest allocations, the Kenya National Highways Authority will get Sh12.85 billion while the Kenya Rural Roads Authority will be allocated Sh10.85 billion.
The Urban roads agency will get Sh5.1 billion, Kenya Wildlife Service will receive Sh340 million while other road agencies that are under the road sector investment programme will receive Sh3.8 billion.
The agencies are allocated the funds based on the length of roads under their watch after Kenya reclassified its network into national trunk and county roads in 2016 with an expected 240,000 kilometres by 2022.
The roads board previously relied on the Commission on Revenue Allocation formula that used population, land area and poverty parameters to determine the allocations.
