The state of roads in Uasin Gishu County could be changing for the better after the county acquired heavy and modern road construction equipment.
The acquisition is to help in the building of new roads and expansion of the existing ones.
County CEC in charge of roads Eng Gideon Birir is the one who received the equipment on Friday at the county headquarters saying that the county governor, Jackson Mandago will flag them off next week.
The equipment includes excavators, tippers, backhoes and concrete mixing machines among others.
“We have taken a loan to purchase the equipment. Contractors here cannot be able to acquire them due the prohibitive high cost of the machines which make them unable to deliver to the expected standards,” Birir said.
Meanwhile, governor Mandago has indicated that the county is intending to construct roads in all the county wards totalling to 900 kilometres in the current financial year. He has however warned that substandard work by contractors will not be condoned.
“I call upon our engineers and residents to make use of the hard earned tax on investments. As you know our county relies mainly on agriculture for economic growth and thus the need to have good roads,” said Mandago.
Roads chief officer Nelson Maritim has indicted that the county is planning to build 50 more roads once the heavy rains subside.
“Our target is to make 900km of roads in the next six months to make our roads passable and ease transportation,” he said.