Nairobi residents have raised concerns over the deplorable conditions of the roads within the city whose conditions have continued to deteriorate, making them impassible as concerned authorities fail to take action.
According to a spot check, many roads in the city, including posh areas of Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Upperhill, Lavington and adjacent areas continue to deteriorate even as there seems to be a push and pull between different government agencies over who is responsible for their maintenance.
''We are suffering here. Everyday we have to take our cars to the repair service stations. We are wondering where the government is on this,’’ Adbul Noor, a motorist, lamented.
''Kilimani is now like a farm, you can plant bananas here and harvest. If the government can permit me to grow maize, I do not think that I would be buying maize in the city,'' Mtumimishi Dalmas, a bodaboda rider, told the media.
In many cases, the roads within the city are completely washed away and damaged, with drivers devising tactics to escape the glaring potholes thereby disrupting the flow of traffic and resulting in delays and jams.
The poor state of the roads extends to informal settlements including the Soweto Masimba Road which was a subject of controversy and online debates after President William Ruto used the road on Sunday while going to a service at a local Catholic church.
Major roads such as Jogoo Road are often a disaster, especially at night and when it rains, with residents travelling home from their businesses and workplaces forced to spend hours on the road from the traffic jams occasioned by the poor state of roads.
The section connecting Jogoo Road to Landhies Road around Muthurwa market is particularly a disaster whenever it rains, with the poor drainage combined with the raw sewer overflow from around the market, spreading onto the road surface.
Drivers using small and personal vehicles are forced to do daily repairs for tyre bursts and damages resulting from hitting major potholes and obstacles within the roads.
However, Nairobi Governor, in an interview with Citizen TV on Sunday, November 17, dismissed some of the blame that his government has faced over the poor state of the roads, maintaining that some of the infrastructure is under the national government.
Sakaja revealed that state agencies such as the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) should be blamed for the deplorable state of the roads, noting that he had released a budget of Ksh11 billion to repair key infrastructure under his management within the city.
''Some of the roads like Jogoo road where I recently saw a video of vehicles hitting potholes on Jogoo road are areas that the county government has been blamed on despite them not falling under our jurisdiction,'' Sakaja noted.
''We have agreed with the Ministry of Roads to prioritise some of the major roads leading to the Central Business District(CBD) that will be repaired in the first phase,'' he added.
