The County Government of Uasin Gishu with the funding from the Kenya Development Support Programme has made significant strides in improving road connectivity in most rural areas at a cost of Sh102 million.
County Chief Executive (CEC), Roads, Transport and Public Works, Eng. Gideon Birir, said the County has managed to construct nine bridges and box culverts in various places in the area. Seven of them are complete and handed over for use.
He said the connectivity programmes is one of the efforts to open up new agricultural productive areas and enable farmers to access markets for their produce.
“This achievement is very important as farmers are assured of access to markets, especially now that the County Government of Uasin Gishu is working on promotional crops such as Avocado, Coffee, and Macadamia as well as dairy farming,” said Birir.
Among the bridge undertaken are Cheukta Ngeny/Lemoru, Kabitoi/Tendwo, Kapkeno/Timor, Chepsaita/Singilet, Cheptikitiny/Kerita, Kapsaos/Kapkoros, Kapkorio/Kapnyangi, Kapseret/Saina and Cheplaskei/Kapkoros.
Eng. Birir noted that besides opening up new areas for production, road accessibility will help in industrialization and overall development of the County.
He thanked the Kenya Development Support Programme for its funding that enabled the Department to realize the achievement, saying that they are looking for more donors to partner in infrastructural development.
“We have also been doing improvement of earth roads into all-weather roads within Eldoret Central Business District (CBD) to improve transport and now we are moving a notch higher and have started doing a pilot programme of doing low value asphalt roads. This is with an intention of cutting costs in the future, the low value asphalt roads have a lifespan of 15-20 years compared to gravel that is washed away when it rains heavily,’’ added the CECM.
Eng. Birir emphasized that the County Government intends to make Uasin Gishu an investment destination for investors in different areas of agriculture, value addition, dairy and manufacturing.
He thanked the County Executive and the County Assembly for supporting road infrastructure improvement by allocating funds that have enabled them to acquire own equipment resulting in cost-cutting and making work easier and more effective.
By Kiptanui Cherono
