Residents of Mulot area in Narok West Sub-county are outraged at the slow pace of construction of a bridge that connects Sogoo area and Mulot trading center.
Led by a village elder, Cornelius Korir, the residents gave an ultimatum of two weeks to the contractor on site to finish constructing the bridge along River Ng’asyat or pack his belongings and quit the area.
They complained that despite the contractor starting the job over two years ago, he has not constructed the bridge, prompting the residents to trek for many kilometers looking for alternative routes to cross to the opposite side of the river.
“School going children are the most affected as they have to trek longer distances than they should. Sometimes they are lifted to the other side of the river by excavators constructing the road,” said Korir.
Gilbert Chemor, said their produce were rotting in farms, making farmers, especially those who deal with milk to incur huge losses because of the impassable road.
“For over ten years now, we have been crying for the construction of this road. When the contractor came on site two years ago, we were happy that things would go on well but to our shock, nothing meaningful has been done to make the bridge passable,” he lamented.
Benard Terer, a taxi operator in the area, said they were incurring huge losses because he was forced to use a longer route while transporting his customers from Mulot to Ilmotiok side and vice versa.
He observed that things are worse during market days when many people have to transport their goods from their farms to the trading center in Mulot.
“Following the heavy rains being experienced in the area, the river has flooded and it becomes dangerous to cross it. This makes it difficult for livestock traders from the Ilmotik side to drive their livestock to the market place in Mulot,” he said.
In February this year, the government gave the contractor a three months’ notice to complete the stalled bridge or risk losing the tender.
This is when a team of Principal Secretaries led by Industrialization Principal Secretary (PS), Dr Francis Owino, Public Service PS, Mary Kimonye and University Education and Research counterpart, Simon Nabukwesi, visited the area to inspect the construction of the 62 kilometer road.
The upgrading to bitumen standards and maintenance of the road is being done by Parbat Siyani Construction and elite earthmovers JV limited and funded by the Government of Kenya.
However, outgoing south rift resident Engineer, Stephen Musindany, told KNA that the contractor was stuck because of delayed payment that has crippled his work.
By Ann Salaton
