Rage as contractor drags feet on Sh1.1bn roadworks in Migori

A contractor could lose his job of tarmacking a 25 kilometer a road in Migori County for delaying to complete the work on time.
Pepeta Holdings Limited was put on the spot to explain why it had only done 26 per cent of the contractual work whose life-span ends in May 2019.
The local County Development Implementation Coordinating Committee (CDICC) warned Monday that it may recommend a severe verdict against the company for failing to stick to the timeline of the Sh.1.1bn project.
The whole work was supposed to take two years as per the contract signed between the company and client – the Kenya Roads Authority (KERA)
Committee chairman and Migori County Commissioner, Joseph Rotich expressed concern that only 5km of tarmac had been carpeted on Motemorabu-Suba Kuria- Nyangoge – Nyankore–Getonganya – Masaba road since 2017 when work began on the site.
“If you have only done this small work in 20 months what guarantee can you give this committee that you can finish the work within the remaining two months,” posed Mr. Rotich to Mr. Omar Noor, the company operations manager who was at pains to exactly explain the odds behind the long delay.
Mr. Rotich who was accompanied by the Presidential Delivery Unit Director, Mr. Melkizedek Onguso, KERA resident engineer Joash Michoma and other heads of department accused the contractor of lacking capacity to do the work.
Mr. Noor attributed the slow pace of the road’s construction to post 2017 election chaos and constant equipment break ups for the delay and assured the committee of their commitment to finish the work within the stipulated time.
Engineer Muchoma however said the company was also lacking qualified personnel to speed up the road works.
The committee was on its first mission to monitor, analyse, identify and offer solutions to problems dogging national government programmes and projects in the county for onward reporting to higher authorities.
The national government is currently engaged in upgrading of existing roads to bitumen standards in the region to the tune of about Sh. 6bn as a part of the 10,000 km last mile road network in the country.
Meanwhile, the committee also directed administrations of both Migori level 5 and Kehancha level 4 hospitals to fast-track the installation and use of the medical equipment, worth millions of shillings supplied by the national government.
Some of the equipment that include CT-Scan, ultra sound, Renal, dental and Radiology machines, among others had not been put to use in the facilities due to lack of sufficient power and water, qualified personnel and infrastructural facilities to house the equipment.
Committee chairman Rotich asked the area Kenya Power manager, Mr. Joel Kerich to ensure that the right quantity of power was supplied to the facilities while the administrations provided the right electricity conductors to address the existing gaps in power supply.
By George Agimba