The Kajiado County Commissioner (CC), Joshua Nkanatha has warned sand transporters plying the Kajiado- Isara road against overloading.
Nkanatha said the 68 kilometre road that links Kajiado to Loitoktok town is a low- volume seal road and vehicles using the road must not weigh more than 10 tonnes.
The CC noted that the road which has not been completed had already developed potholes as trucks ferrying sand from Eselenkei River to Kajiado, Mashuuru, Loitoktok, Nairobi and other towns are normally loaded past the recommended weight.
“I want to warn all drivers ferrying sand using the Kajiado-Isara road not to overload their trucks as they are destroying the road, this is a low volume seal road. The road has not yet even been completed but the contractor has been forced to re-do 16 kilometres which has been damaged by the heavy trucks and Lorries,” he said.
Nkanatha spoke on Monday after the County Development Implementation and Co-ordination Committee (CDICC) which he chairs, inspected the Sh. 3 billion road.
Three Lorries which were found overloaded with sand during the road inspection were impounded and the drivers arrested.
The CC revealed that the transporters had resorted to ferrying the sand at night and removing the number plates of their vehicles to evade arrest by police who patrol the road.
He warned them that it was illegal to drive a vehicle without a number plate and they would face the full force of the law when caught.
However, the sand transporters complained that the road was built without their input as the main users of the road, questioning why the road was designed to handle vehicles of not more than 10 tonnes and yet lorries and trucks are the main users of the road.
More than 200 trucks that ferry sand from Eselenkei use the road every day with Kajiado’s Mashuru Sub County being a major producer of sand used in construction in Nairobi, Makueni, Machakos and neighboring counties.
By Janet Rop
