The exercise to rid Kenyan roads of illegal road bumps and erection of proper road signage will be completed next month according to the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA). KeNHA Director General Eng. Peter Mundiania says the roads agency is spending 40 million shillings on the initiative aimed at reducing the carnage on highways.
These efforts follow President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive for the placement of proper road signage following the December 2016 road carnage on the busy Nairobi-Nakuru highway that was partly blamed on the road bumps. The crash on Saturday 10 December 2016 in the night resulted in an explosion at Karai near Naivasha. Media reports indicate that it all started when a truck, whose driver lost control after hitting a bump, crashed into vehicles heading towards Nairobi.
After this incident, KeNHA embarked on standardizing speed bumps and removal of illegal bumps according to the KeNHA DG. He added that most of them are already removed and added that in one month, they will have finished the exercise.
The DG was speaking on June 13, 2017, while on an inspection tour of the ongoing construction of a second carriageway of the Athi River – Machakos Turnoff. This is part of the upgrade of the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway into a dual carriageway. Eng. Mundinia says the talks with the America’s export-import (Exim) bank for the financing of the multibillion-shilling project is ongoing and expected to close soon. The Athi River-Machakos turn-off, which is a stretch of 20 kilometres will cost Sh5.3 billion and is being constructed by China Railway 21st Bureau Group Company Limited.
The Director-General was accompanied by the KeNHA General Manager Special Projects Eng. David Muchilwa and the Project Coordinator Eng. Paul Omondi among other officials. Eng. Mundinia said motorists would pay for the expanded Nairobi–Mombasa road via a toll charge to recoup the construction costs. He said feasibility study had indicated that the capital used in investment will be recovered in 25 years.