A Bill making it mandatory for the Kenya Roads Board to consult MPs on roads projects seeks to hand lawmakers a huge say in how this year’s Sh96 billion roads budget will be spent.
According to the Annual Public Roads Programme (APRP) for the 2023/24 financial year, the Sh96.7 billion raised through the Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF) will be disbursed to five agencies under the State Department for Roads.
The Kenya Roads Board (Amendment) Bill, 2024, seeks to provide for a mandatory consultative mechanism between the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) and the Kenya Roads Board.
Alongside another change to provide for the inclusion of the members of the NG-CDF into the Constituency Road Committee, the amendments likely to receive strong backing in the National Assembly will strengthen MPs’ influence on construction and rehabilitation of roads across the country, a vital campaign issue.
“This will ensure adequate representation of the people in the Kenya Roads Board,” states the Bill published on March 22 and which is sponsored by Hamisi MP Charles Gimose.
The proposed new subsection 4A in the Kenya Roads Board Act, 1999, reads: “The Constituency Roads Committee shall provide a mechanism for consultation between the National Government Constituency Development Fund Committee and the Kenya Roads Board in all matters relating to all roads in the respective Constituencies under this Act.”
The Constituency Roads Committee is tasked by law to advise the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) on the formulation of the annual roads programme and the roads to be included for development. The law provides that the committee shall meet at least four times a year.
Instructively, the proposed amendment coincides with a steep rise in the budget allocation for KeRRA from Sh680 million last year to Sh25.6 billion for the 2023/24 financial year.
Only Kenya National Highways Authority (Kenha) has a higher budgetary allocation of Sh30 billion. KeRRA’s mandate is class C roads.
Others that will share out in the Sh96 billion estimated projection of the Kenya Roads Board Fund (KRB-F) are Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) that is earmarked to get Sh12 billion and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) that will receive Sh802 million.
KWS, which is responsible for roads within national parks and game reserves, took a huge reduction from Sh10 billion allocated in the 2022/23 financial year.
According to the Kenya Roads Board, this year the road network planned for maintenance is 53,799 kilometres, representing 54 per cent of the current maintainable network.
The planned works include 25,871 kilometres of routine maintenance, 10,708 kilometres of performance-based contract maintenance, 602 kilometres of periodic maintenance and 11,553 kilometres of spot improvement.
“It is anticipated that the accomplishment of the above planned kilometres of road network under various maintenance interventions will yield significant benefits for Kenyans including enhanced employment opportunities, improved access to essential services such as education and healthcare facilities, enhanced movement of goods and passengers, reduced vehicle operating costs, lower transportation costs as well as improvement of road safety,” says the board’s Director-General Rashid Mohamed.
“Over the last 15 years, the government has invested heavily in road maintenance, rehabilitation, and development. This concerted effort has led to an overall improvement of the road condition resulting in the maintainable road network expanding to 68.9 per cent over the period,” adds Mr Mohammed.
The APRP for the financial year 2023/2024 has been prepared based on projected collections of the Kenya Roads Board Fund (KRB-F), states the board.
The Act gives the board an overall mandate to oversee the road network in Kenya and coordinate the maintenance, rehabilitation and development funded by Road Maintenance Levy Fund (RMLF), and to advise the Cabinet Secretary.
Section 19 (4) of the KRB Act requires the board to individually review the annual road programmes submitted to it by the road agencies and consolidate the Annual Roads Works Programmes (ARWPs) into the Annual Public Roads Programme (APRP).
The programme specifies the amounts allocated for the maintenance, rehabilitation and development of each class of roads.
It is also required to match the cost of implementing the APRP with revenues collected or estimated to be collected by the board and within the Fund.
It is also tasked with identifying roads requiring maintenance, rehabilitation or development in order of priority, considering social and economic requirements of the country or any part in which roads are located.
Every five years, the board normally undertakes a countrywide Road Inventory and Condition Survey (RICS) to update the information on status of all roads.
The next cycle of RICS is ongoing and it is expected that the road conditions will have improved based on various maintenance interventions and upgrading works that have recently been carried out.
