Money to go to the road authorities

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

The question of whether to fund the county governments or the road authorities for the road works in the counties brought about heated reactions that saw the cabinet secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, Eng.S.Kamau questioned by the parliamentary committee. It has however been concluded that the money allocated for roads in the budget should go to the road authorities, Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA),Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) and the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA).

The government is now faced with the tricky choice of re-calling back Sh35 billion that went to the counties for road and electricity works so as to give it to the respective authorities. A total of Sh28 billion was meant for roads while Sh7.2 billion was for the Rural Electrification Authority (REA).

Read:To fund the Road Authorities or the County Governments?

The other option if the monies are not refunded to be allocated to the road authorities will be to prepare a supplementary budget to finance the three authorities afresh or propose amendments to the Division of Revenue Act in order to reverse the allocations.

“This could however be problematic given the acrimony between the Senate on the one hand and the Executive and Parliament on the other over how the law was enacted”, reports a local newspaper.

The failure to fund the authorities put many road projects at risk some of which are ongoing. This saw to Roads and Civil Engineering Contractors Association of Kenya (RACECA) coming out strongly urging the government to resolve the funding issue fast to allow for payment of contracted firms undertaking infrastructure works in the country under the three road authorities.Read:“Fund the roads authorities that they may pay us”-Contractors Authority

MPs who support that the money goes to the authorities indicate that the county governments are not yet ready to undertake road works most of which are under either of the three road authorities.