Businessmen cry foul over road last tarmacked in 1978

Businessmen cry foul over road last tarmacked in 1978

The business community operating in Lodwar, Kakuma, Lokichogio and South Sudan are now decrying the poor state of roads leading from Kitale to Sudan.

The operators said that heavy rains in 1997, 2005 and 2015 badly damaged more than 250kms of road and no repair has ever been done.

A section of business people who deal in perishable goods like tomatoes and green vegetables now say they have been incurring heavy losses as a result of their goods going bad before reaching their destination.

The operators noted that the normal duration a lorry can take from Kitale to Lodwar is three days, but whenever it rains most of the roads are impassable causing the vehicles to break down for days.

Daniel Edwar, who is the chairman of the Lodwar fresh vegetables sellers, said that Lodwar market bears the greatest brunt of losses.

Another trader, Janet Kwamboka, lamented about the bad roads saying it forces them to incur losses, further leading to an increase in their prices and hence lose customers in the process.

Aside from perishable goods going bad, truck drivers plying the Kitale-Lodwar road also say that the state of the road has seen an increase in attacks. The drivers now say that many drivers have lost their lives and property in the attacks.

According to Emmanuel Ekai, the chief officer in charge of roads, the county government has not been in a position to repair the road but confirmed that the Kenya National Highways Authority has committed to start the construction on the road next year April.

Ekai revealed that this was after the World Bank sponsored the construction.

On their part, World Bank County Director Yahya Youtogey said that they have allocated Sh500 billion to construct the Kitale-Lodwar-South Sudan route, adding that this would avert more trouble especially with most bridges in the region being at a risk of being swept away.

The Kitale-Lodwar road was last tarmacked in 1978 during Jomo Kenyatta’s regime and to date, the road has never been repaired or reconstructed.

The road from Kitale to Lodwar is 395 is under the A1 Class road meaning that only the national government can deal with it.

Lodwar is the headquarters of Turkana County, which is an arid area that largely depends on food items and products from other counties like Trans Nzoia and Uasin Gishu that are delivered by road.

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Lodwar turkana kakuma Lokichogio

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