Speaker urges Bett to act on Mara road

Photo/PHOEBE OKALL The road to Maasai Mara on February 11, 2011.

By NATION CORRESPONDENT
Posted  Tuesday, May 24 2011 at 19:06

House Speaker Kenneth Marende has asked the Roads ministry to give priority to the rehabilitation of the Narok-Maasai Mara Road.

This followed a question in Parliament on Tuesday over a contract to build the road, with Tourism assistant minister Cecily Mbarire saying tourists had quizzed her during a recent business trip overseas.

“They kept asking me whether something is being done to improve the road,” she said.

Mr Marende directed the Roads ministry to act quickly on the issue, given its importance to the tourism sector.

Narok South MP Nkoidila ole Lankas, who filed the question, claimed the contractor abandoned the site soon after he was awarded the contract and the road may not be completed before the peak tourism season.

In response, Roads assistant minister Lee Kinyanjui said the Sh378 million contract to rehabilitate the Narok-Maasai (Sekenani) gate was awarded to M/s Petwa Construction Company Ltd in November last year and work began in January.

The project was expected to be completed in January next year, Mr Kinyanjui said, clarifying that the contractor had not abandoned the site but had cleared it before the work begins.

He said the ministry would be supervising the contractor and would ensure traffic was not disrupted throughout the rehabilitation period.

Members said they were concerned that a small section of the road between Narok and Maai-Mahiu had been redone at a very high cost and only a small amount of money had been allocated to the rest of the road, which is about 100 kilometres.

Mr Marende told the assistant minister that the road had to be given priority as it contributed a huge portion of revenue to the economy.