Sh9 billion roads for Trans Nzoia

The Sh9 billion Kitale –Endebes – Suam road and the Kitale –Webuye roads will open up investments in Trans Nzoia County and its environs.
For instance, the 45kilometre Kitale- Endebess – Suam road will open regional trade between Kenya and Uganda and also facilitate a one stop border point at the Suam border.
The one stop border point will in effect expedite movement of goods and also reduce transport costs across national boundaries at Suam border.
Farmers especially from Edebess Sub County will also transport their farm produce with ease and access wider markets.
Initially, residents were using boda boda in transporting their agricultural products, while for those who managed to get Lorries to carry their farm produce they incurred high transport costs.
Besides enjoying reduced transport cost upon completion of the road, residents will also spend less time in doing their business. They will equally access health services and other social amenities.
Area county commissioner Jim Njoka while inspecting the roads Thursday said that other benefits of the road include safety for road users. He said that the Edebess road is at 15 percent completion rate and asked residents to prepare to do business and farming.
Speaking while he led county development Implementation committee during the monitoring tour, Njoka asked public officers supervising the national projects to exercise prudence in their work.
He said that the committee will monitor every stage of the national government’s projects as mandated by executive order number 1 of 2019.
“We will also identify challenges facing projects in the county and find solutions to every project and where we will not be able to address the bottlenecks, we will escalate to a higher office,” said the county commissioner.
The Kitale -Webuye road which is at 99.4 percent completion will also help ease congestion and boost trade between counties besides facilitating Kenyans to accessing social amenities.
Njoka asked different departments to establish good relations to help fast track completion of projects. Departments such Kenya Power, Kenya National Highway Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority were also asked to work harmoniously for the success of infrastructure projects.
At the same time, the county commissioner also pointed out that the committee was not out to witch-hunt implementers, but was meant to identify, monitor and report progress on the projects, with a view to taking government services closer to people.
The County development and Implementation committee meets after every forty nights to oversee the smooth implementation of government projects.
By Pauline Ikanda