Nakuru County Governor Lee Kinyanjui at a past event. [Photo/kenyanewsagency.co.ke]
Road contractors in Nakuru County have vowed to move to court to challenge Governor Lee Kinyanjui's decision to lock them out in a Sh35 million road rehabilitation programme.
The Governor on Tuesday launched 'Boresha Barabara' project where he announced that he will only use county's machinery and workforce, instead of involving contractors who bid for tenders.
He plans to upgrade 1,600kms of feeder roads across all the 11 sub-counties in 16 weeks.
However, the move has not been received well by contractors, with some terming it 'illegal'.
"Road works such as design, scope of works, and pre-qualification requirements among others need to be advertised for a competitive bid unless a contractor has been 'selected' to do the job," a contractor who sought anonymity said.
The contractor, who used to be a beneficiary of such jobs in the previous administration added:
"For one, Nakuru County does not have capacity to inspect that length of roads in terms of quality. Secondly, it is impossible to imagine covering 30kms of road construction in a day."
However, acting Roads and Public Works County Executive Member, Lucy Kariuki, defended the decision to leave out contractors saying it would greatly reduce the cost of repairing the roads.
"By using our own resources, we are able to incur less costs," Kariuki said, adding that the machinery that would be used have been idle for years.