Motorists at the Nairobi Expressway Mlolongo Toll Station on Sunday, June 26, 2022. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
Road agencies received Sh77.3 billion for maintenance in the financial year ended 2021/22 as the state consolidated previous gains to maintain better roads across the country.
The disbursement is part of the Sh87.4 billion road maintenance levy and transit tolls collected for in the year under review, a marginal Sh400 million increase from 2020.
The Kenya Roads Board (KRB) said in a statement it released the funds to the three road agencies and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) which is responsible for maintaining park roads.
The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) received the bulk of the cash after it was given Sh26.5 billion. The other agencies that received the cash are Kenya Rural Roads Authority (Sh20.8 billion) and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Sh9.7 billion).
“End of FY 2021/2022, Kenya Roads Board collected a total of Sh87.4 billion comprising roads maintenance levy and transit tolls for development and maintenance of road network in Kenya,” said KRB director general Rashid Mohamed on Monday.
“Out of this Sh77.3 billion was disbursed to roads agencies for construction and maintenance purposes.”
KWS received Sh651.33 million while other road agencies under the annuity programme and road sector investment programme received Sh18 billion.
The funds are normally collected from motorists through the Sh18 per-litre road maintenance levy and transit tolls. The agencies are allocated the funds based on the length of roads under their watch after Kenya reclassified its network into national trunk and county roads in 2016.
The roads board previously relied on the Commission on Revenue Allocation formula that used population, land area and poverty parameters to determine the allocations.
The county formula also considers climatic condition and population.
“This consistent funding of road maintenance has resulted in the improvement of the condition of the road network significantly making Kenya even more globally competitive as envisaged by Kenya Vision 2030 and the big four agenda,” said Mr Mohamed.
Mr Mohamed said to ensure adequate and sustainable funding of the road network, the Kenya Roads Board Act, 1999 has been amended through the Finance Act, 2022 to provide for allocation of 50 percent of the Fund to maintenance and 50 percent towards securing additional funds to bridge the funding gap in the road sector of approximately Sh600 billion.
“Our goal now is to review the financing options available and raise funds in this financial year to ensure that both road development and maintenance projects receive adequate funding in order to sustain the growth momentum in our network,” said Mohamed.
Mr Mohamed said added the Board is developing the Road Sector Investment Programme (RSIP) III for the period (2023-2028) to determine development and maintenance priorities and funding requirements for the road network.
To ensure that value for money is achieved, the Board will continue to monitor the Annual Public Roads Programme (APRP) through technical compliance, financial and performance audits.
A value-for-money audit undertaken between 2018 and 2021 showed 60 percent of roads are now in good condition up from 40 percent during the baseline study in 2018. Roads in fair and poor condition reduced from 37 percent and 23 percent to 22 percent and 18 percent respectively.
botieno@ke.nationmedia.com
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