Kenya’s Road agencies on the spot for misappropriating over Sh142 Billion

By Steve Umidha

The country’s road authorities committed ‘instances of outright incompetence’ as three Parastatals misappropriated in excess of Sh142 Billion in the last five years.

In a damning report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the Kenyan National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KRRA) through Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) gave out contracts that either had minimal or no provision for road furniture.

The RMLF are taxpayers’ levies that go towards maintenance of public roads both routine and periodic, including road furniture – but despite these allocations, it is common to find dilapidated road furniture on Kenyan roads.

The auditor general’s report which was tabled in the Parliament on February 11, cites a vast trove of financial misappropriation by the three agencies that receive funding from the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works and relies on RMLF for their operations which includes installation and maintenance of road furniture.

Road furniture are all roadside signage used for safety and control of traffic in addition to those for assisting motorists and pedestrians but there continue to be complaints from the public on lack of such signages on most public roads.

What’s worse, Ms. Gathungu in her report found that none of the three state corporations lacked an existing inventory or traceable records for road furniture.

“Regional Managers and Directors revealed that the three Authorities did not keep an inventory of roads and road furniture. This poses a risk to proper planning for maintenance as well as protection of road furniture,” noted the report findings.

The report was conducted in 9 provisional administrative regions between January and March 2019 in Central Kenya, Upper Eastern, Coast, Western, Nyanza, Nairobi, South Rift, North Rift and Lower Eastern.

“Road furniture is a component of the contract sum for any road project. It was therefore not possible to establish the exact funding for road furniture from the Authorities’ financial data. However, review of 50 road contracts for KeNHA, KURA and KeRRA revealed that road furniture components in the BQs averaged 4.43 per cent, 6.67 per cent and 2.85 per cent,” noted the auditor’s report.

RMLF funding is entirely meant for road maintenance and is based on the percentage of total levies collected by the Kenya Roads Board.

According to the Kenya Roads Act, 2007, KeNHA receives 40 per cent, KURA 15 per cent and KeRRA 10 percent of the RMLF collected annually.

“There have been complaints from members of the public on erection of speed bumps without signage, as well as erection of bumps that are not up to standard, hence posing danger to motorists. Further, newly constructed roads had been opened for public use before completion of installation of road furniture,” notes the report.

Lack of such critical road signs on most parts of the rural roads particularly at the counties, according to the report, was to blame for the increasing number of accidents on such roads most of which are not known to National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).

“The absence of these critical road furniture poses safety risks to road users. Lack of safety fences renders limited or no protection to road users while absence of markings in areas where traffic is expected to slow down exposes road users to accidents,” reads the report in part.

Available statistics by NTSA show that road crashes claimed 3,114 lives between January and November last year, compared to 2,942 during the same period a year earlier with the fatalities being fingered on lack of proper road signages including reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving among other factors.

The 2019 Auditor General report further reveals that 10 out of 22 roads under KeNHA and 12 out of 16 roads under KeRRA were not demarcated while all KURA roads inspected were not demarcated. Some of the roads, according to the report, had been encroached resulting in blockage of road signs.

The audit also revealed that collaboration with stakeholders including police departments on roadside development activities was not adequate.

“Failure to collaborate with stakeholders led to encroachment on road reserves as a result of conflict of interest among various agencies. The three road Authorities have not been able to adequately install and maintain road furniture on the roads. This is mainly attributed to inadequate planning for road furniture,” it noted.

Indeed, it found that most roads such as Kisian-Bondo Road, Kisumu-Mau Summit Road, Kiambu -Limuru Road, Southern Bypass road, Eldoret-Turbo-Malaba road, Kakamega Ekero-Ebuyango Road among other highways had defaced signs, faded or unmarked carriageways, vandalized road signs, guardrails and bridge rails defaced or absent with majority having faded road markings.

Kenya is currently running the Roads Annuity Programme – a copycat based on its success in India. The model which is dubbed, roads 10,000 programme, was approved in March 2015 and was planned for implementation within five years covering 10,000 kilometers with bitumen standard roads.