Nairobi governor Mike Sonko has pledged to fix all roads in the city without considering the authorities mandated to work on them.
Speaking through his Facebook page on Sunday, Sonko said that his road-fixing would not discriminate between poor and rich, or government roads and county roads.
He cited the case of Riverside Drive in the Nairobi Down Town and said it fell under the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) but he was going to work on it.
"Even though Riverside Drive is under KURA, the public doesn't know that. Mimi sitoki hapa na siendi kulala mpaka hii Riverside Drive yote iishe potholes na kesho pia tuende road nyengine pia bila kutoka mpaka potholes ziishe. Na tutakuwa tunamix bila kubagua kwa wadosi; kwa ma hustler na Nairobi yote mpaka tufix all potholes as we wait for major recarpetting of these roads," he said.
This translates as:
"Even though Riverside Drive is under KURA, the public doesn't know that. I won't leave here and I'm not going to sleep until Riverside Drive has been fixed of potholes. And tomorrow we shall go to another road and we shall not leave until all the potholes are eliminated. We shall be mixing without discrimination between rich or poor until all roads have been fixed pending a major recarpeting."
Sonko said that during his campaigns, he promised better roads for Nairobians and that he would now use alla available resources to ensure infrastructure is top notch to help in business.
"I pledged to improve the state of our roads. I have noted with great concern that our economy needs reliable infrastructure to connect supply chains and efficiently move goods and services and links producers to markets, workers to jobs, students to school, and the sick to hospitals, roads are vital to any development agenda. Good roads largely improve road safety," he said.
Major infrastructures in slum areas like Kibera have suffered neglect for long.
The areas however remain hopeful from the governor's pledge of improving them.