A 42-kilometre feeder road cutting through a section of Makueni County that has dominated presidential campaign pledges since independence is expected to feature prominently when President William Ruto hosts Ukambani leaders at State House on Wednesday, May 21.
The tarmacking of the Emali-Ukia Road has been a top agenda whenever presidents host Ukambani delegations.
President Ruto has invited all elected and nominated politicians and other leaders in the Ukambani region to a consultative forum.
This is the first such meeting for the region, which voted overwhelmingly for the Azimio presidential candidate Raila Odinga in the 2022 General Election.
The State House meeting, which President Ruto announced at a meeting with a section of his Ukambani allies last week, is part of a series of activities which he has lined up before touring the region.
“President Ruto has pledged to start tarmacking the 42-kilometer Emali-Ukia Road in July,” Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse announced when he hosted a team of President Ruto’s allies for a fund drive on Friday.
Although Mr Mutuse echoed Aviation Principal Secretary Teresia Mbaika and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) nominated senator Tabitha Mutinda, who has separately addressed the tarmacking of the key road, the announcement was met with skepticism.
The misgiving is understandable considering that successive regimes have pledged to tarmack the key road only to renege on their promises to the chagrin of locals and their leaders.
According to the Kenya National Highways Authority, the Emali-Ukia Road is part of a transnational highway linking Tanzania and Ethiopia through Kenya.
The road serves Kibwezi West, Makueni, and Kaiti constituencies. It links the Mombasa-Nairobi highway to Makueni County headquarters, Wote Town.
It serves a Makueni countryside which is rich in mangoes and assorted citrus fruits, and Kalamba, a dispersal area for the African Inland Church.
“Tarmacking of the Emali-Ukia Road has been at the centre of political promises since independence,” Mzee Mwalimu Makenga told a 2025/2026 budget public participation forum led by Baringo Woman Representative, Florence Jamatiah, at Makindu Township in Makueni County on Saturday.
“We are pleading with President Ruto to tarmac the key road once and for all to unlock Makueni County’s economic potential by enabling our fruits to access markets,” he added.
Sustained lobbying by Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, former Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana, former Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior, and former Makueni MP Daniel Maanzo saw President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration move towards tarmacking the Emali-Ukia Road.
It initiated the tarmacking of six kilometers of the road from the Emali side at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, only for the contractor, Tevene Enterprises Limited, to abandon the site barely after grading the targeted stretch in unclear circumstances.
The excitement which greeted Makueni County after President Kenyatta’s administration upgraded the Emali-Ukia road from Class C to Class B in 2021 was soon overshadowed by a delay in tarmacking the road.
Tarmacking of the road was among the top three priority projects for the Ukambani region, which the Kenya Kwanza administration committed to undertake as it campaigned in the region.
The government has made a semblance of commitment to completing the other two projects: Kibwezi-Kitui Road and Thwake Dam, which sit on the border of Kitui and Makueni counties.
Scenes of vehicles broken down in muddy sections of the Emali-Ukia Road are common during the rainy season. Swollen streams cutting across the road make it impassable during the rainy season.
The road becomes dusty during the dry season, to the chagrin of motorists.
“We believe African Inland Mission founder Peter Scott used the Emali-Ukia Road in the late 1800s on his way to Kalamba, where he set up the first African Inland Church. It is still a dirt road many years later. We beseech President Ruto to tarmac the Emali-Ukia Road and count on our support in the 2027 General Election,” said Jimmy Makumbi Mainga.
The clamour to tarmac Emali-Ukia Road has united allies of President Ruto and those of Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka.
“Once tarmacking the Emali-Ukia Road has enough money allocated to it, the government should enlist two contractors to fast-track it. One should start from either end so that they meet in the middle,” Special Economic Zone Authority chairman Fred Muteti said recently.
“Tarmacking Emali-Ukia Road unlocks the economic potential of Kajiado, Makueni, Kitui, and Garissa counties,” Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo Junior told President Ruto recently.
At the height of the sustained pressure from various quarters to have the key road upgraded, Roads Principal Secretary Joseph Mbugua pledged the commitment of President Ruto's administration to tarmacking the Emali-Ukia Road when he toured the region in March.
