Rules give public powers to choose roads for repair – Business Daily
Road works in Nakuru. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Kenyans will determine the roads to be maintained, rehabilitated and developed if MPs approve new rules aimed at sealing loopholes in the management of Kenya Roads Board Fund billions.
The Transport ministry has tabled in Parliament the Kenya Roads Board (General) Rules, 2022 that require road agencies to hold stakeholder meetings to determine the order road works before submitting the list to the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) for funding.
Currently, the Kenya Roads Board Act stipulates that a road agency shall select the roads to be included in its Annual Road Programme.
The regulations address order of works, monitoring and evaluation through technical and performance audits and general management.
The new rules mandate the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura), Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Kerra) and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to prepare and submit annual roads programme to the KRB not more than six months to the start of the financial year.
“The road agency, during the preparation of the annual roads programme, shall hold stakeholder meetings to determine the order of priority of roadworks,” Rashid Mohamed, the director general of Kenya Roads Board said in the regulations.
“In determining the order of priority of road works …follow the following sequence-routine maintenance, rehabilitation, spot improvement and periodic maintenance.”
The new rules also compel the road agencies to allocate at least 25 percent of the roadworks to be done by the local people.
The agencies will also be required to conduct an annual roads inventory survey to determine the proportion that requires maintenance and submit the information to the board.
Under the new rules, the KRB can reject an annual roads programme for an agency that does not comply with the conditions. “The purpose of the Kenya Roads Board (General) Rules, 2022 is to provide details and clarity on provisions which have been left open by the Kenya Roads Board Act 1999, to fill the gaps inherent in the management of the Kenya Roads Fund and make provisions to facilitate the preparation of annual roads programmes,” the Transport CS said in the memo to Parliament.
Under the new rules, the KRB will be required to notify each of the road agencies of the funds available for the works. KRB will also inform the agencies how the allocation of funds will be made before the board develops a disbursement programme.
“Each road agency shall, for the purposes of utilising funds received from the Fund, maintain, rehabilitate and develop the categories of roads within its mandate,” the rules state.
The KRB Fund comprises of the Road Maintenance Levy, Transit Toll and Agricultural cess.
In the financial year 2021/22, the KRB allocated KeNHA Sh26.6 billion, Kerra (Sh14.6 billion), Kura (Sh6.7 billion), KWS (Sh651.3 million) and Roads Sector Investment Programme Gaps (Sh6.5 billion).
KWS maintains roads within national parks and game reserves.
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