Gatundu North residents on Thursday staged a protest over the poor state of roads in the constituency.
Led by an elderly woman, the residents paralysed transport on the Marigi-Kandakomu Road, lashing out at area MP Elijah Kururia who they accused of failing in his mandate to ensure that the area is serviced by quality infrastructure.
Most of the residents complained that their attempts to reach out to the MP had fallen on deaf ears.
“Whenever our leaders attend interviews, they boast of development. Which development? Look at the state of our roads, it's pure mud,” the granny remarked.
In a defiant act of protest, residents expressed their frustration by forcefully pushing cars trapped in the mud, accompanied by impassioned chants to underscore the challenges they have been enduring.
“We have a major road problem, we cannot move around easily. It is a dire situation because in the event someone falls sick at night, you are prompted to seek help from some youth to help you push your car so that you can get to the hospital,” one of the residents remarked.
The residents further accused the politician of attempting to hoodwink them by dishing out packets of unga and monetary bribes which they described as an attempt to cover up his poor development record and the state of infrastructure in the area.
“Our only plea, is for the development of these roads, we don't need cooking flour, or Ksh 200, we don't need money, we need road development,” another resident claimed.
The residents remarked that they have resorted to protests to force their leaders to take action especially now when the country is experiencing heavy rains which has rendered most of the roads impassable.
Thursday's protest comes two weeks after another section of residents from the same area protested over stalled water projects in Gatundu North.
On November 3, 2023, residents of Kamwangi Village in Gatundu trekked from their town to the Deputy County Commissioner's office demanding answers on why a water project had stalled for 1 year.
While staging the protest, the residents expressed their frustration over the slow implementation of the project which they said they were counting on to water their farms and boost agricultural productivity.
However, much to their chagrin, the project never took off after it was commissioned.
