Kisii County governor James Ongwae has called on the national government to devolve the entire road sector to counties and release funds for road works.
Speaking on Monday at Gusii Stadium during the Madaraka Day celebrations, Ongwae petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to cooperate and decentralise the sector.
“The National government is holding almost all roads and we are only left with feeder roads. This has always caused a lot of friction between the public and my county government. It is because they don’t understand that our hands are tied up and, therefore, we only work on the minor roads. I ask the national government to ease our operations by devolving the entire road sector,” said Ongwae.
Nyaribari Chache Member of Parliament Richard Tong’i supported the governor on the call for devolution of the roads.
He pledged to push for the devolution of all roads so that they can be managed by counties to avoid the two government blaming each other over who is responsible for given roads.
“It does not make sense when an MP is given Sh15 million to use for making roads and an MCA is given Sh20 million for the same function yet they represent a smaller area. For this matter, I propose decentralisation of all roads so that they can be under the county docket,” suggested Tong’i.
The MP promised to work with governor Ongwae on matters of development as one way of moving the county forward.
“In as much as we sometimes differ in opinions, I laud you for what you have done for our county and I will support you in order to achieve more,” assured the Member of Parliament.
Governor Ongwae and MP Tong’i have been at loggerheads for some time now and have been publicly denouncing each other for failure to deliver to the electorate.