Roads in Bobasi Constituency, Kisii County could be attended to by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA), but not in the tenure of the current Member of Parliament Innocent Obiri Momanyi.
Elderly women, men, and youth have organised themselves into groups to repair sections of damaged roads in their constituency.
According to Masige East ward residents, it has been two years since the area MP took over office, but not much has been done to help make some of the roads passable.
The situation, locals say, has made them suffer massive losses as most of their farm produce as tea leaves rot at buying centres, as leaf carriers find it difficult to collect the highly perishable harvest.
The locals say a good number of the roads were rendered impassable by the ongoing rains, accusing Obiri who they elected to serve as MP after 3 unsuccessful attempts, of neglecting the Omokonge-Kionyo road.
Omokonge residents repairing a section of the Omokonge-Kionyo road on Thursday [Source/Daniel Nyabera]
"Dear Obiri, it took you more than 10 years pleading with us to vote you as our MP. We voted for you recently, why are you not helping us? Help us, we are suffering because of this road," pleaded an area resident.
Area MCA Davins Onuso in a telephone conversation with Hivisasa confirmed that the bad state of the road has been a pain for the area residents. He indicated that on numerous occasions, local leaders had appealed to the MP to look into the matter but to no avail.
"This road is not under the county government. It falls under KERRA and previous regimes always tried to make sure some work is done. It is unfortunate that the people have to repair the roads on their own. People know their rights now than ever before and it is important that the matter is urgently looked into," stated Onuso.
According to Nyamori Mogadishu, a resident of the area, they voted for the MP hoping he would fulfill his pledges.
"Our quality tea can not get a chance to reach the factories. The fresh bananas and green vegetables our relatives want in the city can not be collected. This is our only source of income. It is unbelievable how the MP has disappeared after getting our votes. He lied to us," said Mogadishu.
A section of youth helping repair a damaged road in MP Innocent Obiri's Bobasi backyard [Source/Daniel Nyabera]
Obiri could not be reached immediately for a comment as two of his telephone numbers could not go through by the time of publishing this article.
Here is a video of the locals speaking on the state of the road.
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