Chinese firm wins Sh2bn tender to build Samburu-Kinango road

Kinango road Kwale County. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By STELLAR MURUMBA

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Summary

• The construction of the class C202 road, which is one of the main entry points to the country, started last week, offering relief to locals.
• The road also traverses Matuga and Kinango constituencies and its tarmacking will ease over-reliance on the Likoni ferry.
• The road was initially placed under Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) but was later transferred to KeRRA.

Chinese firm, Jangxi Youse has won a Sh2 billion tender for the construction of the 53km Samburu-Kinango road, which has remained untarmacked since independence.

The construction of the class C202 road, which is one of the main entry points to the country, started last week, offering relief to locals.

The road will connect Kwale County with the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway at Samburu and the Likoni-Lunga Lunga road at Kombani, once complete

“The construction work is expected to take 24 months,” said Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) Kwale regional manager Charles Opala.

“It will benefit the mining and tourism industries while opening up the county to investors and facilitate communication.”

The road also traverses Matuga and Kinango constituencies and its tarmacking will ease over-reliance on the Likoni ferry which provides the only key access to South Coast through Mombasa.

Before this project, the entire county had about 120km of tarmacked roads which include the Likoni-Lunga Lunga and Kombani-Kwale roads.

Mr Opala said that an additional 148km of roads will be upgraded to bitumen standards in the county under phase one of the development of 10,000kms of roads supporting primary growth sectors.

The roads which are at the tendering stage include C106 Kombani-Kwale-Kinango, A104 Lunga Lunga-Vanga-Shimoni, JNC A14 Milalani-Munje-Funzi Island and Kiranze-Mwema-Maledi.

Construction of the 45-km Kombani-Kwale-Kinango road is expected to begin in July this year and will take 24 months to complete.

“The section between Kwale and Kombani will undergo pot-hole patching and resurfacing,” said Mr Opala.

He noted that the road was initially placed under Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) but was later transferred to KeRRA.

The County Commissioner, Kutswa Olaka said the project will bring transformation in the county, opening up the hinterland and speeding up rural development.