Residents of Nyalenda B ward in Kisumu Central Constituency have opposed the maintenance of Simba-Yellow House-Nanga Bridge road by the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NGCDF)
Settlement executive committee chairman Oginga Oketch said the road is set for tarmacking under the program by Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project (KISIP).
Oketch said KISIP is doing a number of roads within the slums and had allocated funds for the said road whose construction is set to start in July this year.
“The road now being maintained by CDF is under KISIP and now it baffles us why it is being maintained at a time it is set to tarmacking,” he said.
Speaking to the press at Nyalenda in Kisumu on Tuesday, Oketch said public resources will be wasted if the maintenance goes on and tarmacking kicks off next month.
He said that NGCDF ought to have involved the people of Nyalenda to seek their priorities before they embark on maintaining the road.
He proposed that funds under NGCDF should be channeled to the counties to avoid duplication of works and misuse of funds.
“How I wish these funds are channeled to the counties so that we don’t witness such confusions. It is the public money which is being wasted her. It can even be channeled to other projects,” he said.
Oketch said there should be coordination to ensue projects are implemented smoothly.
But speaking on phone, the constituency NGCDF Manager Nahason Ngwena noted that maintenance of roads is the sole responsibility of the government.
Ngwena said roads must be maintained even if the will be tarmacked in a month’s time.
“If the roads are not maintained, the public will not ask KISIP but will blame the government,” he said.
He said that NGOs like KISPI and other bodies like Kisumu Urban Project have continued to frustrate their efforts to initiate development in the constituency.