Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU) representative in Kisii County Monday put to task Nyanza Regional Director of Kenya National Highways Authority for presenting a shoddy report to the County Development and Implementation Coordination Committee meeting.
Eng. Dickson Owuor found himself on the wrong footing with the (PDU) regional coordinator after his report concerning Keroka – Nyangusu road which was allocated Sh73, 405,759 was rejected by the committee on the basis of being shoddy.
The PDU Director Melchizedeck Onguso also accused Owuor of ignoring his calls on several occasions saying it was derailing the smooth work of CDICC.
The committee which was chaired by Kisii Central Deputy County Commissioner, Leonard Mgute noted that the engineer had not made any effort to update the report for purposes of the meeting despite buying a lot of time, but was making his presentation from a report delivered in previous sittings.
Mgute noted that the report was not up to date and would therefore not guide the committee during their site visit to view the project.
“I urge you to take these concerns seriously as they can have serious repercussions on you,” Mgute warned.
Owuor however, noted he had challenges in getting someone to do the report for him but promised to do another one soon with proper updates for purposes of the committee.
The said project’s contract was awarded to M/S Orion Limited on November 27, 2018 who started work in January 2019 and the work is expected to be completed in 36 months.
The CDICC instead discussed a different project, Isebania-Kisii-Ahero road project still under Kenha and which is located within Kisii, Homabay and Migori Counties.
Reporting on the road which is financed by African Development Bank (AfDB) to the tune of 89.3 percent and Government of Kenya at 10.7 percent, Eng. James Mageto cited various challenges.
Among the challenges he enlisted was low rate of mobilization by the contractor, M/S China Henan International Corporation Group Ltd saying it was leading to little physical progress, delayed payments, weather conditions and interference by locals who demanded to be given the jobs.
Onguso underscored the importance of representatives of the employers to state clearly their challenges so that the committee could help in addressing them.
By Jane Naitore
