“The budget we were given was exhausted although we were able to achieve almost 90 percent of what we wanted to do. We are now trying to look for more resources to finish the remaining part and even do more,” he said.
“Currently, there is no work going on and it has been so for the last three months. We had done about 370 kilometres out of the 408 kilometres.”
The Kura boss said the project, which was meant to be completed by December, will now have to delay until the funds are available.
“We will not complete the project by the end of the year as was planned but if we get the needed resources then it will take between two and three months to complete the project,” he said.
The two-year project, being rolled out in more than 12 informal settlements in Nairobi, involves recarpeting and upgrading the roads to cabro and asphalt (bitumen) standards.
This is in addition to the installation of additional road furniture including walkways and cycle lanes where adequate space is available.
The Sh5.4 billion project was launched in November 2020 but proper work began in January this year.
He explained that the project was initially to cost Sh5.4 billion but due to changes in the course of implementation, the cost shot up.
Mr Kinoti pointed out that initially the project was for informal settlements but then densely populated areas including Githurai, Mwihoko, Kasarani, and Mwiki were added to the plan affecting the budget.
The addition of the densely populated areas meant that the initial plan to put up low-cost roads just meant for walking and emergencies had to be changed to have the pavement structure accommodate more traffic.
“When you go to the ground, what you encounter is different from what is on paper. This necessitated us to change the pavement structure,” he said.
According to the overall plan, a total of 70 kilometres will be upgraded in Mukuru slums, Githurai 57.48 km, Roysambu 50.76 km, another 42km in Mwiki, 41km in Kangemi and 40km in Dandora, Utawala, Mihang’o, and Ruai.
Dagoretti will take up 30km, Kawangware 22.6km, Kibera 22.8km, Mathare 18.2km and Korogocho 13.6km.
Mr Kinoti said the project is designed to improve regional traffic capacity through the upgrade of out-of-class roads.
He explained that on completion, the project would be a game-changer in the slums that have suffered from poor road networks, making accessibility of critical services and other essentials a challenge as it will open up the slums connecting them with other parts of Nairobi.
The lack of accessibility in the areas has presented difficulties during emergency and disaster responses such as fire outbreaks, among others.
